asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what proportion of central and local public expenditure is taken up by the social wage in (a) the United Kingdom, (b) France, (c) the Federal Republic of Germany, (d) the United States of America, (e) Japan, and (1) Sweden.

Provisional figures indicate that the social wage comprised 71 per cent. of total public expenditure in the United Kingdom in 1977–78. The social wage is defined in terms of the programmes of the public expenditure survey and comparable information is not available for other countries.