§ 25. Mr. DalyellTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on his Department's review of public expenditure on defence(a) procurement and (b) research in the south-east of England; and if he will assess the advantages of relating such expenditure to the Barnett formula. [20220]
§ Mr. SpellarMy Department places contracts for research and for procurement on the basis of value for money after open competition wherever practicable. As such, this public expenditure is not targeted at any region in particular but depends upon the distribution across the UK of suppliers.
The latest figures available for the breakdown of expenditure on procurement by region are contained in Section 1.9 of the "UK Defence Statistics 1996", a copy of which is in the Library of the House. No similar figures are held centrally for research spending.
130WIt would not be appropriate to apply the Barnett formula, or any other regionalisation mechanism, to defence spending on procurement and research as this would run contrary to our policy of obtaining best value for money for the taxpayer.