§ Mrs. EwingTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what is the total value of assets belonging to his Department(a) nationally and (b) by UK region; and if he will break down the assets by (i) estates, (ii) kit and (iii) plant and machinery for the same areas for the most recent financial year. [131634]
§ Mr. Spellar[holding answer 25 July 2000]: I regret the information sought is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. A summary of the total value of assets belonging to the Department as at 31 March 1999 is as follows:
£ billion Land and buildings 13.5 Fighting equipment 27.9 Plant and machinery and vehicles 4.6 Capital spares 8.4 IT and communications 1.2 Assets in course of construction 9.5 Total 65.1 I shall in future be publishing a summary of the values of assets held in Ministry of Defence's annual Departmental Resource Account (DRAc) under the new 679W resource accounting and budgetary arrangements. The first such account will cover the 1999–2000 financial year and will be laid before Parliament later this year following NAO examination.
The National Asset Register published in November 1997 provides some information on location of land and buildings by region. It is planned to publish an updated version of this with values later this year.