§ Lord Wiggasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they will state the £111,696 million expenditure on defence since 1946–47 at current prices.
§ The Minister of State for Defence Procurement (Viscount Trenchard)Detailed records of the movement in defence prices during a financial year do not exist prior to 1964, when the unified Ministry of Defence252WA was created. Without this information it is not possible to reprice actual expenditure for years prior to 1964–65 to today's prices. Although other prices' indices such as the Retail Price Index do exist for the period, the particular nature of defence procurement means that it would not be appropriate to apply these to defence expenditure. In view of this, constant price expenditure figures can only be calculated for the years 1964–65 to 1981–82; these are shown in the table below at autumn 1980 prices.
Some information on the year to year price movements for Estimates is available prior to 1964 and using this it has been possible to reprice Defence Estimates; that is, planned rather than actual expenditure between 1946–47 and 1963–64 to today's prices; these are also given in the table below at autumn 1980 prices. Because of changes in the content of the defence programme, the figures in the earlier years can only be regarded as an approximate indication of what the programme planned in those years would have cost at autumn 1980 prices.
Year Estimates £million 1980 Autumn Prices Defence Expenditure Actual 1946/47 20456 1947/48 10325 1948/49 7394 1949/50 7695 1950/51 8621 1951/52 11494 1952/53 13136 1953/54 14043 1954/55 14348 1955/56 13339 1956/57 12807 1957/58 11751 1958/59 11798 1959/60 11743 1960/61 12142 1961/62 12041 1962/63 12275 1963/64 12565 1964/65 12392 1965/66 Total 217973 12570 1966/67 12645 1967/68 12605 1968/69 11984 1969/70 11291 1970/71 11244 1971/72 11357 1972/73 11212 1973/74 11060 1974/75 10616 1975/76 11105 1976/77 10901 1977/78 10648 1978/79 10572 1979/80 10892 1980/81 11489** 1981/82 11492* Total 206076 ** Provisional * Planned