Mr. Youngasked the Secretary of State for Defence if he will express the current year's defence spending as a percentage of gross national product; and if he will publish a table of comparison with the other countries that are members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and with Japan.
§ Mr. BlakerThe latest figures available for NATO are for 1980 and these are published in figure 19 on page 69 of Volume 1 of the Statement on the Defence Estimates 1981, Cmnd 8212–1. The most recent Japanese estimate is that they spend 0.9 per cent. of their GNP on defence but it is not known whether this estimate is on a similar basis to the standard NATO definition.