This is a regular round up of Parliamentary questions and answers from ministers relevant to defence issues In addition to oral questions, MPs and Peers can ask government ministers questions for written answer. These are often used to obtain detailed information about policies and statistics on the activities of government departments. In the House of Commons ‘ordinary’ questions do not have to be answered on a specific date. An MP will date a written question for two days after they have tabled it (ie, submitted it for answer via the Table Office). The convention is that the MP can expect it to be answered within seven days of the question being tabled.
Contents
Question
Nicholas Soames (Mid Sussex, Conservative)
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the Order of Battle is of the Commando Brigade.
Answer
Peter Luff (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Defence Equipment, Support and Technology), Defence; Mid Worcestershire, Conservative)
As at 7 September 2011, 3 Commando Brigade Royal Marines consisted of:
Cdo IX Group
40, 42 and 45 Cdo RM
1 Rifles
29 Cdo Reg (Royal Artillery)
24 Cdo (Royal Engineers)
Cdo Logistics Regiment
539 Assault Squadron
Armoured Support Group
Outside the brigade, the Royal Marines include the following units:
Force Protection Group
1 Assault Group
Commando Training Centre
Commando Helicopter Forces
Royal Marines Band
Question
Jim Murphy (East Renfrewshire, Labour)
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how much he expects to be saved as a result of the implementation of Lord Levene’s recommendations in the report, Defence Reform—an independent report into the structure and management of the Ministry of Defence, published in June 2011.
Answer
Peter Luff (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Defence Equipment, Support and Technology), Defence; Mid Worcestershire, Conservative)
As the strategic defence and security review made clear, sales of assets such as the Defence Support Group and the Marchwood Sea Mounting Centre and the defence stake in the telecommunications spectrum, should generate in excess of £500 million over the spending review period. Sales are expected to be completed by the end of the current comprehensive spending review period in 2015.
Question
Angus Robertson (Moray, Scottish National Party)
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what effect the transposition of directive 2009/81/EC into UK law will have on Yellow Book procurement rules regarding sole source procurement.
Answer
Peter Luff (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Defence Equipment, Support and Technology), Defence; Mid Worcestershire, Conservative)
The transposition of Directive 2009/81/EC into UK law will have no effect on the current arrangements used by the Ministry of Defence for pricing work that it has decided to procure on a sole source basis. These arrangements are often referred to as ‘Yellow Book’ rules. This is because the EU treaties and the directive establishes the legal framework under which a decision is made to procure goods, works and services in the defence and security fields either sole source or through competition. Only when that decision has been made are any specific rules governing the selected type of procurement applied. When a decision, in compliance with that legal framework, has been made to procure sole source, then the existing sole source arrangements will continue to apply to that procurement.
Question
Stella Creasy (Walthamstow, Labour)
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will publish the value of estimated tax receipts, calculated in accordance with the Green Book, in each public sector economic assessment of private finance initiative projects in procurement by his Department as of March 2011.
Answer
Peter Luff (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Defence Equipment, Support and Technology), Defence; Mid Worcestershire, Conservative)
holding answer 13 September 2011
The Ministry of Defence (MOD) currently has no private finance initiative (PFI) projects in procurement. It does have a small potential future pipeline of housing and aircrew training service projects which are subject to investment decisions prior to commencing procurement. The MOD remains committed to using PFI only where it is value for money.
Question
Jim Murphy (East Renfrewshire, Labour)
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence with reference to his Department’s Business Plan 2011-2015, how much is projected to be saved in (a) Resource DEL, (b) Capital DEL, (c) annually-managed expenditure and (d) in total from the reduction of the number of Tornados in each financial year from 2010-11 to 2014-15.
Answer
Savings over the next four years are expected to be:
| £ million | ||||
| 2011-12 | 2012-13 | 2013-14 | 2014-15 | |
| Resource DEL (near cash) | 0 | 30 | 35 | 90 |
| Capital DEL | 10 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Other Resource DEL | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
No savings were identified in 2010-11
Other Resource DEL includes depreciation and the costs of writing down or writing off the value of capital equipment no longer required. In 2010-11, the portion of this cost attributable to decisions made in the strategic defence security review was treated as annually managed expenditure. Its treatment in 2011-12 and future years has yet to be decided.
Question
Jim Murphy (East Renfrewshire, Labour)
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how much (a) has been saved and (b) is projected to be saved in each financial year of the spending review period in (i) Resource DEL, (ii) Capital DEL, (c) annually-managed expenditure and (d) in total from sales of his Department’s assets.
Answer
Liam Fox (Secretary of State, Defence; North Somerset, Conservative)
The Department has agreed a target of £162 million of capital receipts over the spending review period from disposing of assets that could be sold as viable businesses. Preparatory work is in the early stages and will include a value for money analysis to identify ongoing costs and potential savings for each of the asset sales. The earliest receipt is likely to be realised during financial year 2013-14.
Question
Jim Murphy (East Renfrewshire, Labour)
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how much will be saved in (a) Resource DEL, (b) Capital DEL, (c) annually-managed expenditure and (d) in total by April 2013 from the withdrawal of the three variants of the TriStar transport/tanker aircraft from service.
Answer
The savings to April 2013 are expected to be as follows:
| £ million | ||
| 2011-12 | 2012-13 | |
| Resource DEL (near cash) | 15 | 30 |
| Capital DEL | 5 | Nil |
| Other Resource DEL | 0 | 0 |
Other Resource DEL includes depreciation and the costs of writing down or writing off the value of capital equipment no longer required. In 2010-11, the portion of this cost attributable to decisions made in the Strategic Defence and Security Review was treated as Annually Managed Expenditure. Its treatment in 2011-12 and future years has yet to be decided.
Because Resource DEL includes depreciation, which is the capital cost of equipment spread over time, it cannot be added to Capital DEL to give a total figure.
Question
Jim Murphy (East Renfrewshire, Labour)
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence
(1) how much has been saved in (a) Resource DEL, (b) Capital DEL, (c) Annually-managed expenditure and (d) in total from the removal of the Royal Navy component of the Joint Harrier Force from service;
(2) how much has been saved in (a) Resource DEL, (b) Capital DEL, (c) annually-managed expenditure and (d) in total from the removal of the RAF component of the Joint Harrier Force from service.
Answer
Liam Fox (Secretary of State, Defence; North Somerset, Conservative)
The savings to April 2013 are expected to be as follows:
| £ million | ||||
| 2011-12 | 2012-13 | 2013-14 | 2014-15 | |
| Resource DEL (near cash) | 10 | 25 | 35 | 35 |
| Capital DEL | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Other Resource DEL | 25 | 25 | 25 | 25 |
Other Resource DEL includes depreciation and the costs of writing down or writing off the value of capital equipment no longer required. In 2010-11, the portion of this cost attributable to decisions made in the Strategic Defence and Security Review was treated as Annually Managed Expenditure. Its treatment in 2011-12 and future years has yet to be decided.
Because Resource DEL includes depreciation, which is the capital cost of equipment spread over time, it cannot be added to Capital DEL to give a total figure.
