§ Mr. Cohenasked the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the answer of 26 January, if he will indicate the number of projects within each of the specified expenditure bands, details of which have not been publicised on grounds of national security or on other grounds.
§ Mr. Archie HamiltonThe expenditure bands listed by the hon. Member in his earlier question cover a very large716W number of projects. Some of these have been publicised, others have not. It would not be possible without disproportionate effort to identify those in the latter category.
§ Mr. Campbell-Savoursasked the Secretary of State for Defence if Sir Gordon Downey or an official of the National Audit Office has been informed of each defence project where the project definition cost has exceeded £10 million since 1981.
§ Mr. Archie HamiltonYes.
§ Mr. Campbell-Savoursasked the Secretary of State for Defence (1) if the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee was notifed of each defence project where the project definition cost exceeded £10 million before 7 October 1986;
(2) if the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee has been notified of each defence project where the project cost has exceeded £250 million.
§ Mr. Archie HamiltonSince 1983 the PAC has been informed of all such projects through the major projects statement except where this was precluded on grounds of national security. The arrangements for informing the Chairman of the PAC of projects excluded from the major project statement were set out in my reply to the hon. Member for Cynon Valley (Mrs. Clwyd) on 2 February, at column 517.