§ Mr. LawsTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what recent estimate he has made of the defence budget as a share of UK gross domestic product; and how this compares with other(a) European Union and (b) NATO countries; and if he will make a statement. [18807]
§ Mr. IngramThe defence budget share of gross domestic product for financial year 2000–01 was 2.5 per cent. From data supplied by nations, we estimate the NATO average to be around 2.2 per cent. for a comparable period. Although there are no equivalent EU data, we believe the average was around 1.8 per cent.