§ Mr. Ernie Rossasked the Prime Minister what percentage of research and development spending by the Government has been devoted to defence in each of the past three years; and how this compares with other NATO countries.
§ The Prime MinisterThe share of Government research and development spending which was devoted to defence was about 52 per cent. in 1977–78, about 53 per cent. in 1978–79 and, based on provisional figures, about 55 per cent. in 1979–80. These figures reflect the fact that private industry spends much less on research and development in the defence field than in the civil field and, conversely, the Government effort is concentrated on defence. The table below gives information published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development for certain NATO countries. But the means of organising and financing research and development and the methods of defining and collecting the statistics differ between countries; thus the proportions quoted cannot be treated as strictly comparable.
Country Year Defence R & D expenditure as a percentage of total Government R & D expenditure Belgium 1979 0.1 Canada 1979–80 7.8 Denmark 1979–80 *0.5 France 1979 35.4 Germany 1979 11.6 Italy 1979 3.2 Netherlands 1979 3.0 Norway 1979 4.5 US 1979 *48.5 * excludes most or ail capital expenditure.