To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what percentage of precision engineering equipment used by the armed forces is purchased from UK suppliers. (291676)

This information is not held in the format requested. It is, however, estimated that about 70 per cent. of MOD expenditure on precision instruments (e.g. medical instruments, scientific instruments, navigational instruments etc) is with companies where work was carried out in the UK, but not necessarily by UK-owned companies. This figure does not include expenditure on those contracts managed via British Defence Staff in the United States, activities subcontracted to industry by MOD Trading Funds or through international collaborative projects.