Expenditure

Mr. Hooley
asked the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list in the Official ReportUnited Kingdom expenditure across the exchanges in 1977, 1978, 1979 and 1980 (estimated) on United Nations peacekeeping operations, the British Army of the Rhine, and other British naval, military or air force activities overseas, respectively, all figures being expressed in £ sterling equivalents.

Mr. Hayhoe
The balance of payments costs of British forces stationed overseas in the years 1977, 1978, 1979–80 are as follows:

----------------------------
|                          |
----------------------------
|1977–78 (final outturn)   |
----------------------------
|1978–79 (forecast outturn)|
----------------------------
|1979–80 (estimated)       |
----------------------------

An estimate for 1980–81 is not yet available. The figures quoted above represent only the initial incidence on the balance of payments and do not take into account offsetting factors arising from the presence of troops overseas instead of in the United Kingdom. The figures in the right-hand column include costs of the British contributions to United Nations peacekeeping forces but no separate estimate of this is available.