§ 11. Mr. Biffenasked the Minister of Technology what is the estimated total expenditure annually diverted by his Department to non-military industrial purposes; and by what percentage in money terms this has changed over the past two years.
§ The Joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Technology (Dr. Jeremy Bray)Between 1967–68 and 1969–70 the Estimate of defence expenditure of the 1134 Department at current prices has been reduced by £77 million or 12 per cent. from a figure of £640 million while the Estimate of civil expenditure at current prices has been increased by £78 million or 59 per cent. from a figure of £132 million. Of the £78 million increase, £46 million was on support for civil transport aircraft, including Concorde.
§ Mr. BiffenIn respect of the civil component in these figures, has the attention of the hon. Gentleman been drawn to the excellent speech of Mr. Duckworth, the Managing Director of the N.R.D.C., at Cambridge this last weekend, in which he called for the application of normal commercial criteria to the current expenditure of these sums and suggested that the Government had been failing in this respect?
§ Dr. BrayI have read the full text of Mr. Duckworth's speech, in which, I think the hon. Gentleman will find, he was referring to the practices of previous Governments as well as the current one. Furthermore, there has been a very marked change in the criteria applied in the advanced technology field by the present Government, compared with many previous Governments.