§ Mr. Georgeasked the Secretary of State for Defence what estimate he has made of the proportion of current 524W defence expenditure which is accounted for by payments of value added tax and excise duties in respect of purchases of supplies and equipment for the armed forces.
§ Mr. LeeThe effort involved in gathering this information would be disproportionately high. What I can say, however, is that the amount of VAT paid by the Ministry of Defence was 5.3 per cent. of total defence expenditure in the financial year 1985–86.