Asked by: Lord Robertson of Port Ellen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what will be the (1) composition, (2) ownership, and (3) reporting line, of each of the two new bodies to be created to supervise the delivery programme of the successor nuclear deterrent.
Answered by Earl Howe - Shadow Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
As set out in the Strategic Defence and Security Review (Cm9161), the Ministry of Defence (MOD) will establish a new team headed by an experienced commercial specialist to act as the single sponsor for all aspects of the defence nuclear enterprise, from procurement to disposal, with responsibility for submarines, nuclear warheads, skills, related infrastructure and day-to-day nuclear policy.
We will strengthen our arrangements for the procurement and in-service support of nuclear submarines, establishing a new delivery body with the authority and freedom to recruit and retain the best people to manage the submarine enterprise. Options for the new organisation will be developed and assessed for a decision in 2016. The MOD will remain in control of the Successor submarine programme.
Asked by: Lord Robertson of Port Ellen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government why the estimated cost of the nuclear deterrent successor programme has increased.
Answered by Earl Howe - Shadow Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
Designing and building submarines is one of the largest programmes and one of the most complex activities that the Ministry of Defence and UK Industry undertakes. It is the purpose of a design phase to improve our understanding of costs and timescales, which we have now done. The current estimates reflect what we have learned since the design phase began.
Asked by: Lord Robertson of Port Ellen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what was the United Kingdom contribution to NATO's civil budget in each of the last five years.
Answered by Baroness Anelay of St Johns
The figures for the last 5 years for which they are available are in the table below:
DATE (UK FINANCIAL YEAR) | 2010-11 | 2011-12 | 2012-13 | 2013-14 | 2014-15 |
UK CONTRIBUTION TO NATO CIVIL BUDGET (£GBP) | 21,304,775.80
| 22,629,075.15
| 19,213,066.08
| 19,391,543.64
| 18,438,652.39
|
The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) Civil Budget ceiling has been maintained at Zero Nominal Growth for the last five years, with the exception of pensions. The UK contribution to the civil budget each year takes account of other variables: monthly amendments to account for changes in the official exchange rate between the pound and the Euro; NATO adjustments to the call for contributions from Allies to allow for an offset of income received by NATO such as bank interest and for under spends on the budget; and adjustments in the percentage contribution attributable to the UK, which are calculated biannually on the basis of countries’ Growth National Income, and on the number of NATO members contributing.
Asked by: Lord Robertson of Port Ellen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many copies of the NATO Fact Sheet "Russia's top five myths about NATO" have been circulated (1) in the United Kingdom, and (2) to members of both Houses of Parliament.
Answered by Baroness Anelay of St Johns
The British Government has not circulated any North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) fact sheets in the UK or to Members of Parliament or the House of Lords. However, we do commend them to all Members as an excellent resource, and I attach NATO’s “Russia’s top five myths about NATO” fact sheet to this answer and am placing a copy of it in the Library of the House. This and other fact sheets are freely available on NATO’s website. NATO’s own figures show that around 7700 UK-based users have accessed its “NATO-Russia relations: the facts” webpage, while many thousands more have engaged with its content via social media. Additionally, since the start of the Russia/Ukraine crisis the Government has regularly exposed Russian myths through social media, including promoting NATO’s myth busting content. We will look for further opportunities to bring such valuable info to the attention of this House.
Asked by: Lord Robertson of Port Ellen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how much has been spent on publicising NATO and its role in the United Kingdom for each of the last three years.
Answered by Baroness Anelay of St Johns
The information requested is not held centrally in the format requested, and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Lord Robertson of Port Ellen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the impact of zero nominal growth in NATO's civil budget on the additional tasks given to NATO at the Wales Summit.
Answered by Baroness Anelay of St Johns
The British Government places the highest priority on the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) delivering the commitments made at the Wales Summit, which will strengthen the Alliance to ensure it is able to respond to the full range of new and emerging threats. Good progress has been made in 2015 towards delivering the Wales package with Zero Nominal Growth civil budgets in place. For example NATO has reprioritised resources towards Cyber Defence, enabling its funding to rise by 116 per cent within existing resources. The NATO Civil Budget for 2016 remains under discussion, but we are pressing NATO to continue to prioritise resources as necessary towards delivering the Wales agenda. We support the Secretary General’s drive for adaptation of the organisation, which we hope will promote greater prioritisation and smarter use of resources, allowing NATO to respond quickly to evolving security challenges.
Asked by: Lord Robertson of Port Ellen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether additional categories of expenditure have been added to the defence budget which were not included in the defence budget in each of the last three financial years.
Answered by Earl Howe - Shadow Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
I refer the noble Lord to the answer given to Questions HL1238 and HL1239 to the noble Lord, Lord West of Spithead on 20 July 2015.
Asked by: Lord Robertson of Port Ellen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether elements of defence-related intelligence have been added to the defence budget.
Answered by Earl Howe - Shadow Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
No security and intelligence agency funding has been added to the defence budget, apart from routine transfers which are published in main and supplementary estimates.
The funding for the Defence Intelligence organisation remains funded from the defence budget.
As confirmed in the Summer Budget, the Government is committed to meeting the properly- measured NATO pledge to spend 2% of national income on defence every year of this decade. This will include public spending that supports the Ministry of Defence and the contribution made by the secret intelligence agencies.
Asked by: Lord Robertson of Port Ellen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what consultations with Parliament and civil society have been arranged as a part of the 2015 Strategic Defence and Security Review.
Answered by Lord Bridges of Headley
Work has begun on the 2015 National Security Strategy and Strategic Defence and Security Review, and these will report by the end of the year. As part of this work, we will engage with a range of stakeholders, including Parliament, academics, industry, think tanks and non-governmental organisations.
Members of the public will have the opportunity to contribute thoughts via a dedicated page on gov.uk. Comments submitted will be considered as part of the wider SDSR and NSS processes and this page is due to go live in the next few weeks.
Asked by: Lord Robertson of Port Ellen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government when the findings of the 2015 Strategic Defence and Security Review will be announced.
Answered by Lord Bridges of Headley
Work has begun on the 2015 National Security Strategy and Strategic Defence and Security Review, and these will report by the end of the year.