§ Mr. CorbynTo ask the President of the Board of Trade what estimate she has made of the annual cost to the Government of subsidies to the defence industry per person employed on defence-related work in each of the last three years. [4751]
§ Mr. Battle[holding answer 23 June 1997]: It is not possible to answer the question in the way posed because the Government do not provide subsidies to the defence industry. However, the Department and others, through our on-going sponsorship activities, support and encourage the competitiveness of the industry as it does to a whole range of sectors.