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Written question asked by Stewart Hosie (Scottish National Party) on Monday, 5 December 2005, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 7 December 2005. It was answered by Lord Browne of Ladyton (Labour) on Monday, 12 December 2005 on behalf of the Treasury.

England and Scotland Expenditure

Question
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the mechanism employed in public expenditure statistical analyses to differentiate between spending that can only be identified on a national basis between Scotland and England and expenditure that can also be identified on a regional basis within England; and how this mechanism affects the allocation of identifiable and non-identifiable expenditure between Scotland and England;
Answer

Public expenditure statistical analyses (PESA) shows figures for expenditure that can be identified as benefiting a particular statistical region of the UK. Statistical regions include Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and the English regions.PESA also shows expenditure that cannot be identified as benefiting a particular statistical region of the UK. This is generally expenditure that is deemed to be non-identifiable across the UK. But it also includes some spending in England or England and Wales, where the equivalent spending in Scotland is devolved, and is therefore classified as identifiable for the benefit of Scotland.This mainly affects certain public order and safety expenditure. Other programmes of expenditure similarly affected but with small effects on the aggregates include elements of enterprise and economic development, environment protection, general public services, science and technology, and agriculture, fisheries and forestry.The overall effect of treating these spending programmes as non-identifiable is not likely to be substantial when comparing spending per head in the countries and regions of the UK.In July 2005 HM Treasury sought views from readers for the further development of PESA. The Treasury will be publishing a response to the consultation in the new year. The response will include options for further improvements in the country and regional analysis in PESA, such as whether to increase the extent to which expenditure is attributed to regions—together with a preliminary assessment of the effects of chances and the costs and difficulties of doing so.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
35856; 440 c1785-6W;440 c1785-6W
Session
2005-06
Subjects
England Public expenditure Scotland Statistics
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk