§ Lord Jenkins of Putneyasked Her Majesty's Government:
What proportion of government funded research and development is militarily allocated, and whether this remains higher than in Germany and Japan.
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence (Lord Henley)In 1992–93, the last year for which published figures are available, defence research development (R & D) accounted for 43 per cent. of the net UK government-funded R & D expenditure. However, around three-quarters of defence R & D expenditure is on development programmes carried out by industry as part of the equipment procurement programme. Defence research accounts for a little under 14 per cent. of UK government-funded research expenditure. Expenditure on research is expected to continue to diminish in real terms in future years. Equivalent figures for Germany and Japan are not available; however, figure 35 of the statistical supplement toForward Look 1994 sets out comparisons of government R & D for civil and defence objectives as a percentage of GDP for those countries.