asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he will consider the imposition of current price ceilings on public expenditure programmes; which major countries have already adopted this method of controlling the growth of public expenditure; and when, if recently, they did so.

Some public expenditure programmes are already subject to cash control. As my right hon. Friend indicated in his Budget Statement, we need to reflect on the wisdom of planning public expenditure solely on the basis of constant prices and I am looking into this. So far as I am aware it is the exception, rather than the rule, for countries to plan and control public expenditure on a constant price rather than a cash basis.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will publish a table showing total expenditure by the public sector as a percentage of gross domestic product in 1945, 1955, 1965, 1970 and for each year thereafter up to the latest available date, including the estimate for 1975–76.

The following table shows the ratio of total public expenditure at market prices to GDP at factor cost, for certain years since 1949, the earliest year for which this information is available.