§ Mr. Leightonasked the Secretary of State for Defence what is the cost of maintaining the British Army of the Rhine; and how much of this represents a charge on the balance of payments.
§ Mr. HayhoeI refer the hon. Gentleman to the Statement on the Defence Estimates 1979—Cmnd. 7474. Annex B shows that the functional costs of BAOR in 1979–80 are estimated at £1,079 million. Annex A, table 6, shows that local defence expenditure in Germany is estimated at £661 million, of which about £560 million is for BAOR. As the footnotes to that table point out, this figure represents only the initial incidence on the balance of payments and does not take into account offsetting factors arising from the presence of troops in Germany instead of the United Kingdom.