asked the Minister for Defence the number of miles per gallon of fuel that will be obtained from the Hawker Siddeley 125 executive jet to be leased or purchased on behalf of the Government.

As I indicated in reply to a previous question in the House, a contract has been signed with British Aerospace for the supply of a Hawker Siddeley 125 Series 700 aircraft for delivery in December 1979. Pending delivery of the new aircraft a Hawker Siddeley 125 Series 600 aircraft has been leased from British Aerospace.

Aircraft fuel consumption is normally calculated in lbs. per hour. At economic cruising speed the 600 series aircraft consumes 2,000 lbs. or 256 gallons per hour. At the same speed the 700 series aircraft consumes 1,200 lbs. or 154 gallons per hour. Translating this data to miles per gallon would produce 1.8 and 3.01 respectively.

These are, of course, but indications of the fuel consumption of the aircraft as the rate will vary depending on payload, weather conditions, distance of a particular flight, air traffic control requirements and so on.

The figures I have already quoted would produce passenger miles per gallon of 19.8 and 33.11 respectively at the standard passenger configuration of 8 passengers and 3 crew.