§ Mr. Dan Jonesasked the Secretary of State for Defence what has been the 238W annual increase in the amount of arms spending by each of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation Powers over the past three years; and what increases are anticipated next year.
§ Mr. PymNATO does not publish figures on a constant price basis, and even for those NATO countries for which figures are available they would be at current prices and on current exchange rates, making no allowance for differing rates of inflation. It is not, therefore, possible to provide meaningful figures of the sort requested by the hon. Gentleman. No figures of any kind are available for 1980.
Figures showing annual real change in defence expenditure of the United Kingdom and the United States over the years 1974–75 to 1978–79 were set out in the answer I gave on 17 March to my hon. Friend, the Member for Norfolk, North-West (Mr. Brocklebank-Fowler).