HL Deb 30 March 1977 vol 381 cc1023-5WA
Lord CHELWOOD

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether they will publish a table showing in dollars, in national and per capita figures, expenditure on personnel (showing military and civilian personnel separately) carried on all NMT countries' defence budgets in 1975 and 1976; and in each case what percentage this is of total defence expenditure.

Lord W1NTERBOTTOM

The information is not readily available in the detail requested. Expenditure on service and civilian pay together is set out below for those countries for which the information is available as a total figure for each country, per head of population, and as a proportion of total defence expenditure for each country.

set out below for those members of NATO for whom such information is available. The figures are approximate.

1975 or 1975/6 1976 or 1976/7
(US $) (US $)
Belgium 20 20
Canada 10 10
Denmark 35 Not available
Federal Republic of Germany 30 35
Italy 10 10
Netherlands 30 30
Norway 35 35
United Kingdom 40 40
United States 80 95

Lord CHELWOOD

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether the defence expenditure of all NATO countries shown in Figure 3 of the 1977 Defence Estimates (Cmnd. 6735) is strictly comparable in all important respects: and if not, which items of annual expenditure shown in Annex B are not included by some or all of our allies; and whether they will show which countries exclude which items, and in what other respects they differ from us.

Lord WINTERBOTTOM

The figures for defence expenditure in Figure 3 of Cmnd. 6735 are derived from NATO statistics and are based on a standard NATO definition of defence expenditure. In principle therefore they are strictly comparable, and despite some relatively minor problems of definition they provide in practice a reliable basis for comparison. The NATO definition differs from the United Kingdom definition of the defence budget; a reconciliation between the two may be found on page 68 of Cmnd. 6735. The functional analysis of the United Kingdom defence budget in Annex B of Cmnd. 6735 is based on the structure and organisation of the United Kingdom forces, and is not appropriate as it stands to the forces of other nations.