§ Mr. Burdenasked the Secretary of State for Defence what changes there were in the work traditionally done by Royal naval dockyards between 1964 and 1970 and since 1970, respectively; and what was the value of such work put out to private contractors in those periods.
§ Mr. JuddThe main difference between the work done in the Royal dockyards in the two periods lies in the cessation of the construction of submarines and frigates and the growing proportion of the programme of work which is concerned with nuclear submarine refitting.
Since 1970 the average annual cost of contract assistance to the dockyards has been about £2 million which is about double that in the earlier period.