§ 51. Mr. Hooleyasked the Secretary of State for Defence, including the recent pay award to the Armed Forces, what will be the aggregate defence expenditure in 1970–71; what is the net cash increase over 1969–70; and what percentage increase this represents in cash terms.
§ Mr. HealeyA precise figure of the supplementary provision which will need to be sought from Parliament as a result of the recently announced changes in Service pay has still to be calculated. The present estimate is that it will increase the defence budget for 1970–71 to a figure of about £2,370 million—£2,380 million. This is £104 million—£114 million above the defence budget of £2,266 million for 105W 1969–70, representing an increase of between 4½ per cent. and 5 per cent. At constant prices there will be a decrease of nearly 3 per cent.