Written question asked by Michael John Foster (Labour) on Thursday, 19 January 2006, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 24 January 2006. It was answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern (Labour) on Tuesday, 24 January 2006 on behalf of the Department for Education and Skills.

State-Funded Education

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills, pursuant to the Answer to the hon. Member for Croydon Central of 16th January 2006, Official Report, column 1030W, on state-funded education, if she will express the figures in cash terms at 2005 prices.

Answer: The following table shows the UK education expenditure and gross domestic product (GDP) cash figures used as the basis for my answer to the hon. Member for Croydon, Central. £ million 1979–80 1987–88 1997–98 2004–05 Education spend 10,500 20,400 37,400 63,900 GDP 207,608 431,246 824,044 1,177,760 Percentage 5.1 4.7 4.5 5.4 Note: 1. Figures on UK education spend for the years shown were obtained from the Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses. 2. The GDP figures used are the latest available and were updated at the end of December 2005. 3. The international definition of education expenditure used to produce the figures for the Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses has changed overtime; therefore, the figure for 1979–80 is not directly comparable with the other years. The figures for 1987–88, 1997–98 and 2004–05 have been produced to the same definition and so are comparable. The figures for percentage of GDP spent on education remain the same whether cash or 2004–05 prices are used. This is because the same price deflator is used for education spend and GDP when calculating real terms figures.

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 45375; 441 c1973W
Session: 2005-06
Related items: State-funded Education
Monday, 16 January 2006
Written questions
House of Commons
Subjects: Education Expenditure National income Public expenditure
Contains statistics: Yes