§ Dr. Julian LewisTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence how much(a) has been spent on naval procurement in each of the last five financial years and (b) is scheduled to be spent on naval procurement in each of the next five years. [84379]
§ Dr. MoonieFigures for the amount the Ministry of Defence spent on defence equipment procurement for the years 1996–97 to 2000–01 were published by the Defence Analytical Services Agency (DASA) in "UK Defence Statistics" (copies of which are available in the Library of the House).
Until 1998–99, this publication contained a split of the equipment procurement total by amount spent in each of four environments entitled "sea", "land", "air" and "other". This division did not however necessarily match the particular end destination of the equipment; for example not all "sea" equipment was for use by the 720W Navy—programmes such as the Nimrod Maritime Aircraft came under "sea". "Other" referred to equipment not specific to a particular environment.
Changes in accounting practice meant that it was not been possible to produce an environment split on a consistent basis after 1998–99. However, for the two years 1999–2000 and 2000–01, it has been possible to produce illustrative estimates of the split for the "sea" environment using data from the MOD (cash) central ledger. Comparable data are not available beyond 2000–01 due to the introduction of resource accounting and budgeting.
Equipment procurement expenditure and that for the "sea" environment— VAT inclusive at current prices million Net equipment procurement Of which: Sea equipment procurement 1996–97 9,100 2,190 1997–98 9,003 2,142 1998–99 9,889 2,319 1999–2000 9,715 *2,233 2000–01 10,008 *2,211 Notes:
1. All figures are inclusive of VAT, which cannot be recovered by the Department.
2. Sea equipment is not only used by the Navy.
Source:
UK Defence Statistics 2002 apart from those marked with a *, which are illustrative estimates drawn from the MOD (cash) central ledger.
The Ministry of Defence does not use categories such as "naval procurement" when producing plans as to possible future spend on equipment for the armed forces. Focus is instead on capability. Some information, including the estimated cost, of a number of major projects, including the future carrier, astute submarine and the Type 45 destroyer, is however published each year in the National Audit Office's "Major Project Report". The 2002 report was published on 4 December.