§ Mr. HORE-BELISHAasked the First Lord of the Admiralty how much money has been spent on the maintenance of the Royal dockyards from October, 1924, to the present day?
§ Lieut.-Colonel HEADLAMThe establishment and incidental charges pertaining to the Royal Dockyards and covering the activities of the dockyards both as production establishments and bases for the Fleet are given annually in the published Blue Books "Navy, Dockyard Expense Accounts" under the general heading "Programme of Shipbuilding, etc." (vide page 11 of Blue Book for 1927–28) and for the period covered by the question are as follow:—
1303W
£ 1924 (half-year) 2,229,417 1925 4,772,944 1926 4,431,638 1927 4,367,042 1928 (estimated) 4,294,300 Details of these "maintenance expenses" are also given in the same Blue Book (vide page 6 of the Blue Book for 1927). Any further dissection of the figures presented in the Blue Books would involve a very considerable amount of work, which I do not think would be justified. The Blue Book for 1928 has not yet been prepared.