Tag: 1988

Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on the Gross Domestic Product on 3rd March 1988.

Mr. Wigley To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will give the latest figures for levels of gross domestic product per capita in each of the United Kingdom regions.

Mr. Major Provisional figures for gross domestic product per capita by standard region are available on page 86 of Economic Trends, November 1987, a copy of which is in the House of Commons Library. The figures are as shown:

Gross domestic product per head (£), factor cost: current prices;
Region | 1986 (2)

North | 5,142
Yorkshire and Humberside | 5,215
East Midlands | 5,378
East Anglia | 5,643
South East | 6,575
South West | 5,380
West Midlands | 5,069
North West | 5,232
Wales | 4,795
Scotland | 5,234
Northern Ireland | 3,889
United Kingdom (1) 5,597

(1) Excluding the Continental Shelf region.
(2) Provisional.

Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on Local Authorities on 3rd March 1988.

Mr. Summerson To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what proportion of total central Government revenue is given to local authorities.

Mr. Major 20.5 per cent. The February 1988 edition of CSO’s financial statistics shows that in 1986–87 (the latest full year available) current and capital grants from central Government amounted to £22,831 million out of a total Consolidated Fund revenue of £111,211 million.

Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on Manufacturing Investment on 3rd March 1988.

Dr. Thomas To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what are the latest projections for the growth of manufacturing investment in each of the regions of England, Wales and Scotland and the United Kingdom as a whole.

Mr. Major Official projections for individual regions do not exist. The Department of Trade and Industry’s latest investment intentions survey, published in December 1987, projected a rise of 11 per cent. in United Kingdom manufacturing investment in 1988.

Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on Departmental Spending Programmes on 1st March 1988.

Mr. Kirkwood To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list in the Official Report the relative price effect experienced for each Department’s spending programme for each year since 1979, and the retail price index for each year since 1979.

Mr. Major Since the introduction of cash planning in 1981 the Government have not compiled information on price movements systematically in the way that would be needed to calculate relative price effects for each departmental programme (or the planning total itself). Some Departments produce specific price indices for their own use. Appendix 3 to the Minutes of Evidence taken before the Treasury and Civil Service Select Committee (HC 292) lists the information which is available.

The retail prices index is published each month in the Employment Gazette. However, the GDP deflator is the measure of inflation used by the Government for public expenditure comparisons. This measures the rise in general inflation across the United Kingdom economy as a whole while the RPI is a consumer price index. The latest estimates of GDP deflators for the years since 1979 are as follows:

Years | GDP deflators
1978–79 | 51.3
1979–80 | 59.9
1980–81 | 71.0
1981–82 | 78.0
1982–83 | 83.7
1983–84 | 87.6
1984–85 | 91.5
1985–86 | 96.9
1986–87 | 100.0
1987–88 | 104.3

Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on Disposable Income on 1st March 1988.

Mr. Nicholas Bennett To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what information he has as to average per capita disposable income for each region in the United Kingdom after taking account of average mortgage repayments in each region.

Mr. Major The only available regional information on average per capita disposable income after taking account of mortgage repayments is from family expenditure surveys. Data for 1985 and 1986 combined are:

£ | per person per week
North | 58.77
Yorkshire and Humberside | 59.44
East Midlands | 63.43
East Anglia | 67.77
Greater London | 82.43
Rest of the South East | 76.87
South West | 69.63
West Midlands | 59.84
North West | 62.16
Wales | 60.73
Scotland | 62.54
Northern Ireland | 52.16
United Kingdom | 66.83

Data from the family expenditure survey are subject to sampling variation. Comparisons between these regional figures should also be interpreted carefully as mortgage repayments per capita vary between regions according to the proportion of mortgaged dwellings as well as with the average size of mortgages.

Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on Government Departments (Staff) on 23rd February 1988.

Mr. Chapman To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what was the number of staff in post in central Government Departments at 1 January.

Mr. Major On 1 January 1988 there were 583,485 staff in post in central Government Departments. Of these 508,628 were non-industrials and 74,857 were industrials.

Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on Civil Service Manpower on 23rd February 1988.

Mr. David Shaw To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if copies of the annual report by the Treasury on Civil Service manpower changes in 1986–87 will be made available to right hon. and hon. Members.

Mr. Major Yes. The 1986–87 annual report has been given to the Treasury and Civil Service Select Committee today and copies placed in the Library of the House.

Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on Outturn Expenditure on 19th February 1988.

Mr. Gordon Brown To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is his latest estimate of outturn expenditure for 1987–88; and what are the figures for each Department.

Mr. Major I refer the hon. Member to table 1.8 of volume I of the 1988 public expenditure White Paper (Cm. 288).

Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on Public Expenditure (Private Finance) on 18th February 1988.

Mr. Squire To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he will make available the paper on the role of private finance in public expenditure which was recently sent to the National Economic Development Office.

Mr. Major I am arranging for copies of the paper, “Private Finance in Public Expenditure”, to be placed in the Library of the House.

Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on Growth on 12th February 1988.

Mr. Austin Mitchell To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the reply of 25 January,Official Report, column 81, concerning the rate of growth in each of the past three decades, to what factors he attributes the higher rate of growth in 1957 to 1967; and whether he expects that rate of growth to be achieved in the next four years.

Mr. Major [holding answer 9 February 1988]: Among other things, the world economic environment was more favourable in the 1950s and 1960s than subsequently. Even so, growth in the non-oil economy over the past six years has averaged 3.3 per cent; higher than in the period 1957–67. The Chancellor will be publishing a forecast to mid-1989 at the time of the Budget.