§ Mr. BeggsTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what budget funding was given to the Northern702W Ireland National Health Service in each of the last three years expressed (a) by percentage change and (b) as a percentage of Northern Ireland GDP. [132789]
§ Angela SmithThe information is as follows:
(a)In Northern Ireland, health services are fully integrated with personal social services in a single financing, planning and delivery system—the HPSS (health and personal social services). It follows that the HPSS budget is considerably larger than a separate health budget would be. The figures in the table reflect this fact.
Health and Personal Social Services 2000–01 budget allocation (£ million) 1,976.3 2001–02 budget allocation (£ million) 2,238.7 Percentage change from 2000–01 13.27 2002–03 budget allocation (£ million) 2,475.3 Percentage change from 2001–02 10.5 2003–04 budget allocation (£ million) 2,898.6 Percentage change from 2002–03 17.1 (b) The following table shows budget funding for the HPSS estimated as a percentage of Northern Ireland GDP. In addition to the fact that they derive from an HPSS (as opposed to a merely "health") budget, the percentage shares reflect Northern Ireland's exceptionally high need for expenditure on public services—health and social care included.
HPSS budget allocation estimated as a percentage of GDP 2001–02 11.65 2002–03 12.3 2003–04 14