asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will clarify what is meant by the term "satisfactory balance of payments" in paragraph 32 of Cmnd. 7439; and, in particular, whether and on what scale it is assumed that (a) the current account and its components, namely, non-oil trade, oil trade and invisibles, are in deficit or surplus and (b) whether the capital account is assumed to be in deficit or surplus.

, pursuant to his reply [Official Report, 15 February 1979; Vol. 962, c. 637], gave the following information:In making the three illustrative projections for 1977–82 it was assumed that the balance of payments on current account should be in surplus at the end of the period. The projections were therefore constrained to produce current account surpluses in the range £0 billion to £1 billion in 1982, and private expenditure was varied until a balance in that range was achieved.In each case the surpluses on invisibles and oil trade, the latter the result of the increase in North Sea oil production, are partly offset by a deficit on goods other than oil. The projections were not carried through to a detailed construction of the external capital account, but the assumption is that the capital account is in rough balance so that the current account surplus is sufficient for some repayment of official foreign debt.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will publish estimates of the public sector deficit consistent with table 7 of Cmnd. No. 7439, in £ billion for 1977–78 and 1978–79 and as a percentage of gross domestic product.

, pursuant to his reply [Official Report, 15 February 1979; Vol. 962, c. 637], gave the following information:The public sector financial deficit consistent with table 7 of Cmnd. 7439 and on the same price basis as that table, is estimated at £6·0 billion in 1977–78 and £6·2 billion in 1978–79. In each year the estimated public sector financial deficit is equivalent to 4 per cent. of gross domestic product at market prices.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer, for every £100 spent by the Government on each person resident in England, how much was spent on each person resident in Scotland for each of the years from 1960 to 1978; and if he will publish a table giving the relative figures and percentages for each year for each of the following subjects: the National Health Service, social work, education, arts, sport, housing, rents, local government, rate support grants, planning, water, new towns, the countryside, buses, roads, ferries, airports, passenger subsidies, land tenure, tourism, fire service, courts and administration of the criminal and civil law.

, pursuant to his reply [Official Report, 14 February 1979; Vol. 962, c. 569], gave the following information:The table below gives estimates of identifiable public expenditure per head

in Scotland and England for 1973–74 to 1977–78, consistent with those in the answer to my hon. Friend the Member for Gravesend (Mr. Ovenden) on 17 January 1979—[Vol. 960, c.