§ Mr. WorthingtonTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what has been the allocation of capital resources to each regional or islands council by service; what percentage of the Scottish population is represented by each council's population; and what has been that council's share of the capital allocation as a percentage of the regional council allocation of capital for each service for each of the last 10 years.
§ Mr. Stewart[holding answer 6 May 1994]: The information requested is too lengthy to print in the Official Report. I shall therefore arrange for a copy to be sent to the hon. Member and for copies to be placed in the House Libraries. The allocations listed are net allocations as announced prior to the start of each year in question. These allocations are, however, not the only source of funding available to local authorities. They can be enhanced by the use of capital receipts, which now include grants from the European regional development fund, the use of revenue for capital purposes and by private sector contributions. The ability of authorities to fund capital expenditure from these other sources is central to the approach that the Secretary of State takes in the distribution of resources among authorities. His controls are over all local authority expenditure and not just over the element he distributes by way of capital allocations.