Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment his Department has made of the health and safety record over the course of the Maritime Support Delivery Framework.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
The Ministry of Defence takes the health and safety practices of its industrial partners extremely seriously and we expect suppliers to comply with all applicable regulatory and legal requirements.
The health and safety performance of contractors working on the Maritime Support Delivery Framework Contract is routinely monitored as part of contractual governance provisions. The contractors are also independently regulated by the Health and Safety Executive and, for the nuclear sites at HMNB Clyde and HMNB Devonport, the Office for Nuclear Regulation.
Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what measures have been included in the Future Maritime Support programme contract to mitigate the future life extension requirements of the Vanguard and ageing critical infrastructure and complexities around logistics and transport for the in-service support of (a) complex warships, (b) submarines and (c) naval base services.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
The Future Maritime Support Programme employs a full suite of professional project and programme management planning and risk tools. The provision of services under this programme is currently under commercial tender and negotiation and I am therefore withholding the requested information as its disclosure at this time would be prejudicial to the commercial interests of the Ministry of Defence (MOD) and for the purpose of safeguarding National Security more widely.
I am, however, able to confirm that the MOD is currently delivering a significant programme of recapitalisation updates for HM Naval Base Clyde nuclear infrastructure assets, to the value of some £1.6 billion. This programme is scheduled to complete by 2032 and will deliver around £0.425 billion of investment in nuclear assets on the Clyde by the end of this financial year.
Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many companies are contracted to deliver in-service support of (a) complex warships, (b) submarines and (c) naval base services as part of the Maritime Support Delivery Framework; and how many companies are planned to deliver the Future Maritime Support Programme.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
Most onshore support services at HM Naval Bases, which support HM ships and submarines, are managed under the Maritime Support Delivery Framework contracts. These two contracts cover a wide range of services and are managed on behalf of the Ministry of Defence by our Prime Contractors, Babcock and BAE Systems.
Babcock is contracted to support the Naval Bases at Devonport and Clyde, while BAE Systems supports the Naval Base at Portsmouth. Both Babcock and BAE Systems sub-contract these services further, but the Ministry of Defence does not hold information on these sub-contracts centrally.
The provision of services under the Future Maritime Support Programme is currently under commercial tender and negotiation. As a result, at this stage, the number of providers is unknown.
Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what estimate he has made of the saving to the public purse of awarding the Maritime Defence Framework Contract at HMNB Clyde to Babcock.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
The Maritime Support Delivery Framework was let under a single source contract to ensure continuity of supply and incorporated financial benefits to be delivered by Babcock during the contract. I am withholding the value as its disclosure would prejudice commercial interests.
Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many regular, full-time serving members of the Army there were on the most recent date for which figures are available.
Answered by James Heappey
As at 1 April 2020 the strength of the Regular Army was 79,620 personnel.
Notes/Caveats:
These figures were provided by Defence Statistics (Army)
Figures are for Untrained and Trained Regular strengths and therefore exclude Full Time Reserve Service (FTRS) and Gurkhas but include those individuals who have transferred out of the Gurkhas to the Regular Army.
Figures have been rounded to 10 for presentational purposes;
Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many Army Reserve personnel, excluding members of University Officer Training Corps, have served for a period of over one year.
Answered by James Heappey
As at 1 April 2020, there were 25,580 Future Reserves 2020 (FR20) Army personnel who had continuous Army Reserve service of one year or more.
Notes/Caveats:
Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many regular, full-time serving members of the Army there were on the latest date for which figures are available.
Answered by James Heappey
There were 78,620 Regular Army personnel on strength as at 1 January 2020
Notes/Caveats:
These figures were provided by Defence Statistics (Army)
Figures are for Untrained and Trained Regular strengths and therefore exclude Full Time Reserve Service (FTRS) and Gurkhas but include those individuals who have transferred out of the Gurkhas to the Regular Army.
Figures have been rounded to 10 for presentational purposes;
Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many Army Reserve personnel, excluding members of University Officer Training Corps, have served for a period of over one year.
Answered by James Heappey
As at 1 January 2020, there were 25,610 Future Reserves 2020 (FR20) Army personnel who had continuous Army Reserve service of one year or more.
Notes/Caveats:
Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will place in the Library his Department's report on the Tide-force vessels contract.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
Careful consideration has been given as to whether the MARS (Tide Class) Tanker Lessons Learnt report can be made public at this time. It has been concluded that it cannot as its disclosure would be prejudicial to the formulation of Government policy and commercial interests.
Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether his Department has received a request from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office for the use of the RAF Voyager fleet to repatriate British nationals during the covid-19 pandemic.
Answered by James Heappey
As part of the Government’s COVID-19 response effort, the Ministry of Defence has so far provided places on 11 pre-scheduled flights on Military Aircraft to repatriate British Nationals at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s request, which has included the use of Voyager Aircraft where appropriate.