§ Mr. TrotterTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to his answer of 30 November,Official Report, column 59, if he will set out the measurements used by his Department of total naval production load; what proportion of this load and of total Royal Navy refit, repair and maintenance of expenditure was accounted for in 1991–92 by nuclear refit, repair and maintenance; and what proportion of load and of expenditure arose from contracts awarded overseas.
§ Mr. AitkenThe total naval production load comprises the estimated industrial work required to complete each project in the planned refit and docking programme expressed as man weeks. In 1991–92, the proportions of the total naval production load and of total expenditure attributed to nuclear refit, repair and maintenance work were 17.1 and 26.1 per cent., respectively. The programme attributed to contracts awarded overseas were 0.8 and 0.28 per cent., respectively. The overseas expenditure arose from work carried out on vessels deployed overseas, for which it would have been operationally impossible or uneconomic to bring the vessels to the United Kingdom.