§ Mr. CohenTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence for what proportion of military exports the assistance given by the Defence Export Services Organisation is a crucial factor. [16178]
§ Mr. FreemanDESO assistance to industry ranges from the crucial, in such sales as the Government-to-Government arrangements with Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, to a variety of small, but in some cases very significant, instances of advice and support. It is difficult to quantify this in terms of a proportion but I believe that UK defence industries would rate DESO assistance generally as an important factor in their achievement of export orders, which in 1993 were worth £7 billion.