Health Services: Private Sector

Mr. Laws
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the level of private spending on health care in each year since 1997 (a) in cash terms, (b) in real terms and (c) as a proportion of gross domestic product.

Mr. Timms
The Office for National Statistics provides information on health spending, including private spending on health care up until 2002, on its website (http://www.statistics.gov.uk/healthaccounts/experimental.asp). The ONS series on private health spending is now discontinued.

Internal Treasury estimates for later years, based on a number of assumptions for discontinued data series, are in the following table.

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|       |Percentage|
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|2003-04|1.3       |
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|2004-05|1.3       |
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|2005-06|1.3       |
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|2006-07|1.2       |
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|2007-08|1.2       |
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