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Figure 6 - Expenditure on health, education, transport and public order and safety (%GDP)

Expenditure as a per cent of GDP

0%

1%

2%

3%

4%

5%

6%

7%

8%

1987-88 1989-90 1991-92 1993-94 1995-96 1997-98 1999-00 2001-02 2003-04 2005-06

Public order and safety Transport He alt h Education

The final section looks more closely on spending in the Governments key areas: education, health and
transport. Giving examples of the departments performance against specific PSA’s and a look at their
overall performances.

3.3. Education

Spending on education has increased by over 40% in real terms since 1997, increasing from 4.5 per cent
of GDP in 1997-98 to a 5.5 per cent in 2007-08. The latest spending plans set out in the 2007
Comprehensive Spending Review provide for UK education spending to grow by 2.8 per cent a year in
real terms from £77.7 billion in 2007-08 to £92.0 billion in 2010-11. Between April 1979 and Mach 1997
the average annual increase in real education spending stood at just 1.5 per cent.

The area of education that has seen the greatest proportional since 1997 is spending on the under fives,
where growth increased by over 70 per cent in real terms between 1998-99 to 2003-04, equating to an
average annual real growth of 11.4 per cent. The Comprehensive Spending Review provided for total
funding of over £1.6 billion over the 2007-08 to 2010-11 period for Sure Start, childcare and early years.
This will contribute to the delivery of 3,500 Sure Start Children’s Centres, one in every community, by
2010 and to extending the weekly entitlement for 3-4 year olds to free early years education from 12½ to
15 hours by 2010.

School capital investment will rise from £700 million in 1997 to £6.4 billion in 2007-08 to £8.2 billion in
2010-11. A total of 675 primary schools are expected to be benefiting from investment under the
Government’s Primary Capital Programme by 2010-11. 1,000 secondary schools expected to be
benefiting from investment under the Building Schools for the Future programme by 2010-11.

These increases in funding for education since 1997 have resulted in a measurable improvement in
standards. Over the past ten years, the proportion of 11 year olds achieving expected levels in reading
and maths has risen by 17 percentage points and 15 percentage points respectively, and almost 59 per
cent of 15-16 year olds achieved five or more A* to C grade GCSEs in 2006, compared to 45 per cent in
1997.