§ Mr. HancockTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what is the annual running cost of the British Army of the Rhine; and what were the figures for (a) 1974, (b) 1979 and (c) 1988 at current prices. [3267]
§ Dr. Reid[pursuant to his reply, 16 June 1997, c. 86]: On the costs of the Army's garrisons in Germany, further information has been drawn together on the sum of these costs for the current financial year.
I regret that in calculating the figures for my original answer, I inadvertently omitted the costs of some minor, centrally funded units which are also based in Germany, but included those for our contribution towards some of the NATO headquarters in the country. I have now reassessed the estimated running costs of the Army in Germany to account both for these factors and for a revision of those costs for the formations which I properly included in my earlier answer. The net effect of these changes is that I now estimate the cost of the Army in Germany in 1997–98 to be £1,139 million.
260WThe British Army of the Rhine ceased to exist as a formation from 1 April 1994 when 1(UK) Armoured Division and the United Kingdom Support Command (Germany) became fully operational. I regret that I remain unable to provide comparable costs for 1974, 1979 and 1988 as these were compiled on a different basis.