Mr. T. Morrisasked the Minister for the Co-ordination of Defence whether, taking the latest figures available, he can state the amount of contracts which have been placed in the special areas to date by the fighting services under the new re-armament proposals?
§ Sir T. InskipThe value of contracts placed in the special areas between 1st April, 1936, and 31st May, 1937, amounted to £41,583,465. This figure covers only contracts placed direct by the Service Departments, and does not include any sub-contracts which may have been placed in those areas. In certain cases it has not been possible to separate orders placed under the rearmament programme from normal orders.