§ Mr. Barnettasked the Secretary of State for Defence if he will give his estimate of the percentage of gross national product which on present plans will be spent on defence in the years 1970, 1971 and 1972.
§ Mr. HealeyIf it is assumed that the gross national product at factor cost will 133W in future grow at 3 per cent. a year or a little more the share of it needed for defence budget in 1972–73 of about the middle of the bracket quoted in paragraph 24 of Cmnd. 3515 will be around 5 per cent. I am not prepared at this stage to give corresponding figures for the intervening years.
§ Mr. Barnettasked the Secretary of State for Defence, what estimate he has made of the approximate amount of defence expenditure attributable directly, and indirectly., to meet commitments in the Middle, Near and Far East in 1969, 1970, 1971 and 1972.
§ Mr. HealeyNone. Generally our forces are available to fulfil a number of rôles apart from those in which they might be engaged at any one time, and it is not possible to apportion costs in any meaningful way to individual commitments or contingencies.