To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what estimate he has made of the average rate of inflation for major defence procurement projects in each of the last five years. (322036)

[holding answer 12 March 2010]: In response to observations by the House of Commons Defence Committee (pages 41 to 42 of the HCDC Fifth Report of the 2007-08 session on the Ministry of Defence’s Annual Report and accounts 2006-07, published in January 2008 (HC 61), the Department has carried out a two year programme of work to develop a robust measure of defence inflation.

The results of this work will be published on Defence Analytical Services and Advice’s website on 30 March 2010 at 9.30 am as an Official Statistic at:

www.dasa.mod.uk