§ 23. Mr. Flanneryasked the Secretary of State for Defence if he will raise at the next meeting of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation Ministers of Defence the need to equalise defence expenditure as between one member country and another in terms of gross national product.
§ 26. Mr. Ioan Evansasked the Secretary of State for Defence if he will raise at the next meeting of NATO Defence Ministers the need to equalise defence spending, in terms of gross national product, between the members of the Alliance.
§ Mr. MulleyNo. My colleagues in the NATO defence planning committee are fully aware of our policy, and I have made this point on several occasions.
§ 24. Mr. Newensasked the Secretary of State for Defence when he expects the percentage of gross national product devoted to defence to be reduced to the average spent by Great Britain's partners in NATO.
§ Mr. MulleyWe have no plans for further reductions in defence expenditure. My hon. Friend might wish to note, however, that between 1976 and 1977, while the United Kingdom's defence expenditure as a percentage of GDP fell from 5.1 to 4.9, the NATO average rose from 4.4 to 4.5.
§ 35. Mr Tebbitasked the Secretary of State for Defence what steps he is taking to avoid underspending by his Department.
§ Mr. MulleyThe progress of defence budget spending is monitored closely throughout the financial year, and the programme adjusted at the margin as necessary, so as to secure the best use of resources available within the cash limit. In the last two years, the underspend against the cash limit has been about 1 per cent.
§ 40. Mr. Hugh Jenkinsasked the Secretary of State for Defence what further reduction in defence expenditure would be achieved by bringing down the United 455W Kingdom level to the average expenditure of European North Atlantic Treaty Organisation countries.
§ Mr. MulleySince NATO countries have not completed their consideration of future defence budget levels, I cannot say what the average defence expenditure of European NATO countries will be in the future, either per head or as a percentage of gross domestic product.