§ Mr. Gouldasked the Prime Minister which industries the Government considers of key importance for fighting a conventional war; and whether she will publish in the 583W Official Report a list showing the productive capacity and/or output of these industries at the latest available date compared with 1979 and with the peak in output since 1954.
§ The Prime MinisterThe industries which are major suppliers to the Ministry of Defence of defence equipment required to maintain our capability to fight a conventional war are listed in the following table. The table also shows estimated values of total sales of the products of these
Estimated total sales of products £ million excluding VAT Industry 1979 1982 Ordnance and small arms, explosives (including tracked armoured fighting vehicles) *753 (311) *1,097 (522) Other mechanical and marine engineering 13,937 (221) 15,131 (347) Data processing equipment 1,076 (128) 1,204 (72) Other electrical engineering 5,084 Electronics 4,411 (699) 6,141 (1,292) Motor vehicles and parts 8,597 (133) 8,295 (202) Shipbuilding and repairing *1,500 (331) *1,796 (516) Aerospace 2,528 (1,120) 4,737 (2,092) Instrument engineering 1,430 (101) 1,728 (144) * Includes progress payments.