HC Deb 22 March 1982 vol 20 cc276-7W
Sir John Biggs-Davison

asked the Secretary of State for Defence what is his latest estimate of the jobs which will be provided by the Trident programme.

Mr. Nott

The decisions on the Trident programme announced on 11 March will produce an extra £550 million worth of work for British industry compared to previous plans. The Trident programme is expected to involve directly some 20,000 jobs annually in the peak years of the programme, and some 15,000 indirectly.

Mr. Denzil Davies

asked the Secretary of State for Defence what percentage (a) of the total defence budget, (b) of spending on equipment and (c) of spending on new equipment will be taken up by the Trident programme in each financial year from 1982 to 1979 inclusive.

Mr. Nott

It is not our practice to make available details of the year-by-year expenditure on projects, and in any event it would not be possible to make an exact forecast at this stage, but a broad estimate of the impact on the defence budget and its equipment component was published in defence open government document 82/1—paragraph 41 and figure 6—which is available to the right hon. Gentleman in the Library. Spendng on new equipment, if this is interpreted to mean capital production and related development, accounts for around two-thirds of equipment spending.

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