§ 16. Mr. HORE-BELISHAasked the First Lord of the Admiralty, with reference to the cost, £7,000,000, of the warships "Nelson" and "Rodney," if he will state the amount of money which has been paid to the designer, the costs of materials, including steel plates, armour, gun turrets, boilers, casts in electrification, including ring mains, etc., and guns, mechanism, wireless installation, etc.; and the amount of salary and wages paid to men actually engaged upon the construction of these two ships, respectively?
§ Lieut.-Colonel HEADLAMThe "Nelson" and "Rodney" are contract-built ships, and the orders were placed on the basis of tenders at fixed prices. The amounts paid by the several contractors for materials and in salaries and wages are consequently not known at the Admiralty. A sum for establishment and incidental charges on these ships, assessed on the basis customary in Admiralty accounts, is shown in the programme of shipbuilding appended to the Navy Estimates, 1927, as an addition to the direct costs, and this sum includes 1830 provision for designing costs at the Admiralty as well as for other expenses such as oversight; but the actual cost of the time spent by Admiralty officials on design work for these ships has not been separately recorded.