§ Mr. AdleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what contributions have been made in the last five years from his departmental budget towards research and development costs of civil airlines.
§ Mr. AitkenMy Department makes no contributions towards the R and D costs of civil airlines. However, the Defence Research Agency undertakes a number of generic research programmes, jointly funded by the MOD and the DTI, of relevance to civil as well as military aircraft applications; these have a current value of £40 million, of which the MOD will contribute £27 million.