§ Mr. Trotterasked the Secretary of State for Defence what is his estimate of the average number of jobs (a) in the Services, (b) among MOD civilians, (c) in industry and (d) in total for each million pounds of defence spending and for each 1 per cent. of the defence budget.
§ Mr. MulleyThe defence budget of £6,329 million for the current year covers expenditure on some 337,100 Service personnel and some 278,800 Ministry of Defence civilians, not including those employed in the Royal ordnance factories. An estimated 200,000 people are directly employed in the United Kingdom defence equipment industries and some 44,000 on the defence works programme, including staff of the Department of the Environment. On this basis each £1 million of the defence budget could be held to represent:
- (a) 53 Service jobs; plus
- (b) 44 MOD civilian jobs; plus
- (c) 39 jobs in United Kingdom defence equipment production and works.
One per cent. of the defence budget—£63 million—would on the same basis represent 63 times as many jobs in these categories. Defence expenditure on utilities, non-warlike stores and other miscellaneous supplies also generates substantial employment opportunities. These are not readily quantifiable and have not been included in the above calculations.