National Defence Industries Council (Hansard, 16 March 1972)

§ 25. Mr. Dalyell
asked the Minister of State for Defence how many times he has taken the chair at the National Defence Industries Council.

§ Mr. Ian Gilmour
My right hon. and noble Friend the Secretary of State for Defence is chairman of this council. He has taken the chair twice, and my right hon. Friend and I have deputised on two other occasions.

§ Mr. Dalyell
Giving credit where credit is due, our information is that the N.D.I.C. is doing a good job. Is the hon. Gentleman aware that the reason for my cussedness in putting down 40 Oral Questions is that there was no indication, either in the defence debate or in the debate on the Air Estimates, that serious thought was being given by his Department to Shuttle Tug and the rest of the post-Apollo programme, which is a matter of 5,500 million dollars, 10 per cent, of which is the possible British participation? What is really at issue here is the future of the British electronics industry in many of its aspects.

§ Mr. Gilmour
As I have tried to explain to the Hon. Gentleman before, the space programme is primarily a civil matter—

§ Mr. Dalyell
It is not.

§ Mr. Gilmour
—and is primarily for my right hon. Friend the Minister for Aerospace. However strongly the hon. Gentleman may feel about these matters, it would have been easy for him to put down 40 Questions and to specify which two would be Oral. That would have saved a great deal of time and expense.