§ Mr. FisherTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether his Department has discontinued(a) the collection or (b) the publication of any statistics since 1979.
§ Mr. Archie HamiltonI refer the hon. Gentleman to the answer given to the hon. Member for Oldham, West (Mr. Meacher) on 10 December 1986 at columns206–7.
In 1987, two tables were discontinued in volume II of the Statement on the Defence Estimates, concerning student numbers in selected service colleges and information about service children's education. In volume II of the 1988 Statement on the Defence Estimates, data about the activities of the Meteorological Office were discontinued.
Very little information is collected by the Ministry of Defence purely for statistical publications; most of the data which are published are based on internal administrative records. There has been no significant reduction in the collection of statistics since 1979.