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Ministry of Defence

Answer

Llew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how much has been spent by his Department in each year since 1997-98 on promoting British military equipment and arms sales to foreign customers. [131111] Mr. Ingram: The Defence Export Services Organisation (DESO) of the Ministry of Defence (MOD) plays a fundamental role in implementing the Government's policy of supporting legitimate United Kingdom defence exports. Operating costs for DESO in each year since financial year 1997-98 are as follows. £ million _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Financial year Expenditure Receipts Net operating costs 1998-99 45.359 -29.342 16.017 1999-2000 46.473 -34.977 11.496 2000-01 55.81 -41.430 14.380 2001-02 48.930 -37.853 11.077 2002-03 56.944 -44.407 12.537 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Main sources of offsetting income for DESO are three Government to Government project offices, where the customer country pays MOD costs, and the Disposal Services Agency where costs are met from revenue. DESO raises other sources of income from charging industry for activities undertaken on their behalf where Government independence from industry is not essential and when costs can be directly identified calculated and recovered from individual companies. Savings to the defence budget come from spreading the fixed overhead cost of equipment over the longer production runs generated by exports, from the sale of surplus military equipment to overseas governments and from Commercial Exploitation Levy receipts on exports of equipment developed using public money.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

131111; 410 c1154-5W

Session

2002-03

Subjects

Arms trade Defence equipment Finance Expenditure Government assistance Publicity Ministry of Defence

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

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