§ Mr. Onslowasked the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list the occasions in each of the last 10 years on which the defence procurement budget was underspent, indicating the amount of the shortfall in each instance.
§ Mr. SpeedThe defence budget operates as a whole and there is no separately identifiable defence procurement budget. However, it is possible to indicate those occasions since 1972–73 on which there was an excess of grant over expenditure on the main areas which now constitute Class I Vote 2 (Defence Procurement). Comparable information is not available before this period as a different Vote structure applied.
For the eight financial years in question (i.e. 1972–73 up to 1979–80), grant exceeded expenditure on five occasions: 1972–73 (by £31.3M); 1973–74 (by £102.2M); 1974–75 (by£26.9M); 1976–77 (by £45.8M); and 1977–78 (by £33.4M). The figures are taken from the published Appropriation Accounts and Defence Accounts and are given in outturn prices for each relevant year.
§ Mr. Onslowasked the Secretary of State for Defence how many of the staff of his department are currently employed on defence procurement; and what was the corresponding total in each of the past five years.
§ Mr. SpeedDefence procurement is the task of the procurement executive. The strength of this part of the Ministry of Defence on 1st January 1981 was 45,641. This figure excludes the Royal ordnance factories, which are concerned primarily with production, but includes some 335 staff employed in defence sales, and some 26,300 in the research and development establishments.
Procurement executive strength over the past five years was:
220W
1 April 1976 54,025 1 April 1977 51,629 1 April 1978 48,809 1 April 1979 47,803 1 April 1980 46,966 Strengths for 1 April 1976 and 1 April 1977 are not strictly comparable with those for later years as they include some 1,000 posts subsequently transferred to Ministry of Defence central staff. Subsequent minor transfer of responsibilities and posts between the procurement executive and other parts of Ministry of Defence are largely self cancelling and not significant enough to invalidate these comparisons.