To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what his estimate is of his Department's total expenditure on military research and development in each year from 1990–91 to 2003–04 (planned); and if he will make a statement. [96644]

Research and Development figures for the years up to and including 2000–01 are published by the Defence Analytical Services Agency (DASA) in "UK Defence Statistics" and before 1992 were reported in "Volume 2 of the Statement on the Defence Estimates" (both of these are available in the Library of the House). All figures are net of receipts and include recoverable VAT, the Technology Demonstrator Programme (TDP) and certain other minor research items.On this basis the figures covering expenditure by the Ministry of Defence on Research and Development for 1990–91 to 2000–01, as published in UK Defence Statistics, are given as follows:

Current prices in £ million
Year	Research expenditure	Development expenditure
1990–91	412	1,926
1991–92	466	2,091
1992–93	513	1,568
1993–94	654	1,625
1994–95	665	1,366
1995–96	676	1,394
1996–97	705	1,440
1997–98	656	1,655
1998–99	620	1,476
1999–2000	584	1,761
2000–01	558	1,821

The Ministry of Defence does not have a specific research and development budget. There is a research budget covering non-nuclear research known as the Research Building Block. Separately, the MOD has a much larger budget for the acquisition of equipment within which some expenditure may be regarded as equipment development and some as equipment production. The development element of the acquisition expenditure is not used as a control total. The amount that is statistically counted as development (rather than production) in any one year is largely a consequence of the stage of the procurement cycle at which major equipment projects happen to be in the year in question. Expenditure on 'development' for 2001–02 to 2003–04 is therefore not yet separately identifiable.Research figures for the years 2001–02 to 2003–04 have been compiled according to the principles of Resource Accounting and Budgeting (RAB). The figures as follows are for the Research Building Block expenditure and forecasts. All the above figures for these three years exclude recoverable VAT, the Technology Demonstrator Programme (TDP) and other minor research items.MOD Research Expenditure covering years 2001–02 to 2003–04 (inclusive):

£ million
Year	Research expenditure
2001–02	414 (actual)
2002–03	418 (forecast)
2003–04	421 (provisional)