HC Deb 02 July 1974 vol 876 cc197-9
10. Mr. Robin F. Cook

asked the Secretary of State for Defence what is his policy towards MRCA in view of the fact that its costs are rising as expressed in the resolution signed by 60 members of the German Bundestag.

Mr. William Rodgers

I would like to help my hon. Friend but I regret that I know nothing of the resolution which he describes.

Mr. Cook

I shall take the earliest opportunity of sending my hon. Friend a copy. When he receives and reads it he will realise that the figure given in the statement indicates that the unit cost of the MRCA has increased by 100 per cent. While I appreciate the difficulty of asking my hon. Friend to comment on that figure, may I ask him to confirm that the figure of increase in unit costs of 50 per cent. given to the House by the Expenditure Committee in February is correct? Secondly, will he confirm whether figures have been given by the German Bundestag Budgetary Committee on MRCA unit costs? If such figures have been given, does my hon. Friend accept that so long as our Governments are involved in joint ventures our legislatures are entitled to equal access to financial costs?

Mr. Rodgers

I entirely agree with what my hon. Friend said at the end of his supplementary question. It is right that Parliament should know any information which is passed to the Parliaments of either Germany or Italy. We have no reason to believe that any thin information has been given officially to any other parliamentary body, but we are endeavouring to discover whether there is any information of a kind that could be released by mutual agreement.

Mr. Marten

Is it not true that at this stage of the development of almost any aircraft, be it civil or military, a great number of bogus figures are floated around by rivals who want to snatch the contract?

Mr. Rodgers

I think that is right. The figures mentioned today show great variations. There are also variations in prices between flyaway, programme, systems and life cycle costs. It is a very complicated equation.

Mr. Tinn

I accept what my hon. Friend said about the difficulties of comparing figures. Will he confirm that on all the evidence available to us this aircraft represents a much better buy in terms of the capability that it offers than anything we could obtain elsewhere?

Mr. Rodgers

My hon. Friend puts it very well. I would not wish to attempt to improve upon what he said.

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