§ Mr. Gouldasked the Secretary of State for Defence what proportion of United Kingdom defence expenditure is spent across the exchanges.
§ Mr. MasonThe net effect on the balance of payments of defence expenditure cannot be precisely quantified because of the difficulty of measuring all the foreign exchange transactions that arise directly or indirectly in the defence field. Subject to these reservations, Annex A to the 1973 Statement on Defence shows a deficit on Government account of about 9 per cent. of the 1973–74 defence budget estimates. There are, however, a number of other transactions which are related to the defence field. These include private expenditure by United States forces stationed in the United Kingdom and sales of defence equipment by firms shown in the statement.