HC Deb 24 April 1956 vol 551 cc1594-5
8. Mr. Callaghan

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what proportion of the expenditure of the Government on research and development is allocated to civilian and defence purposes, respectively.

Mr. H. Macmillan

I would refer the hon. Member to the Table listing Research and Development expenditure which appears as Appendix A to the Financial Secretary's Memorandum on the Estimates, and in particular to the notes to that Table. Of the total expenditure of £235 million, approximately £31 million is far civil and approximately £204 million for defence purposes; but of this defence figure an unidentifiable sum will be spent on research and development which may have a Service or a civil application, or both.

Mr. Callaghan

Does the Chancellor not think that it is time we overhauled this ratio between defence and civilian research expenditure? Even if he does not want to decrease the defence research expenditure, does he consider that an expenditure of the nation's effort in the ratio of eight to one in favour of the defence side is really deploying our resources in the best possible way?

Mr. Macmillan

Of course, research expenditure in general is not confined to those particular Votes. I underline what I said in my last sentence, that some of this expenditure is common and serves common purposes.