§ Mr. Rookerasked the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement detailing any reduction or abolition in the collection or publication of statistics or reports by his Department since 115W May 1979, indicating if such information is available from any other source; and what financial savings have been made by any such changes.
§ Mr. Hayhoe:The statistics collected by the Ministry of Defence are almost entirely from within the Department and the Armed Services, and are used for internal management purposes; the information is not available from other sources. Adjustments are made frequently and since May 1979 the annual cost of the statistics organisation has been reduced by about £¼ million.