§ 101. Mr. Gerald HowarthTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what savings have been achieved through competition in RAF equipment.
§ Mr. SainsburyThe Department has achieved significant cost savings on equipment for each of the three services through the adoption of a commercial approach to defence procurement, which includes, of course, a greater emphasis on competition. Eleven examples, where savings totalling some £105 million had been made, were included in the 1988 statement on the Defence Estimates. Four of the examples were of RAF equipment. However, it is not possible to calculate the cumulative total savings, nor the savings achieved for an individual service, since the adoption of the commercial approach in the early 1980s.