Northern Ireland has highest public spending per person

Northern Ireland continued to have the highest public spending per person of any UK region in 2018.

The conclusion comes from Office for National Statistics (ONS) experimental data.

It estimated what spending occurred in each country or region of the UK and what revenues were raised.

The spending refers to public spending in Northern Ireland and also Northern Ireland's share of pan-UK spending on areas like defence.

Spending per person in Northern Ireland was £14,195, while the lowest expenditure was in the east of England at £10,970.

The statistics suggest that Northern Ireland also had the biggest per person deficit - the gap between what is raised in revenues and what is spent.

Revenues were estimated at £9,255 per person, giving a deficit of £4,939.

The next largest deficit was in Wales at £4,395 per person.

The only areas to run surpluses were London, the south-east of England and the east of England.

London had the highest net fiscal surplus at £3,905.

Most of the 12 regions saw an improvement in their net fiscal balances between 2017-18 but that change was smaller than that which occurred between 2016-17.