Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what his Department's planned timetable is for HMS Bulwark's (a) regeneration and (b) return to fleet.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
For reasons of operational security, we do not disclose timetables of future readiness levels for Royal Navy (RN) vessels. However, I can confirm that, as has been the case since 2010, one Landing Platform Dock (LPD) ship will be held in extended readiness so that she will be capable of being regenerated if we have strategic notice that she will be needed. As such, HMS Albion will take HMS Bulwark's place in extended readiness and HMS Bulwark will be regenerated from extended readiness and maintained so that she can be ready to deliver defence outputs if required.
All discussions with Babcock International Group Plc on the LPD programme of work have related to the delivery of the original contract.
Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what his Department's planned timetable is for the potential regeneration of HMS Albion.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
For reasons of operational security, we do not disclose timetables of future readiness levels for Royal Navy (RN) vessels. However, I can confirm that, as has been the case since 2010, one Landing Platform Dock (LPD) ship will be held in extended readiness so that she will be capable of being regenerated if we have strategic notice that she will be needed. As such, HMS Albion will take HMS Bulwark's place in extended readiness and HMS Bulwark will be regenerated from extended readiness and maintained so that she can be ready to deliver defence outputs if required.
All discussions with Babcock International Group Plc on the LPD programme of work have related to the delivery of the original contract.
Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what discussions he has had with Babcock on the tying up of HMS Albion and HMS Bulwark.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
For reasons of operational security, we do not disclose timetables of future readiness levels for Royal Navy (RN) vessels. However, I can confirm that, as has been the case since 2010, one Landing Platform Dock (LPD) ship will be held in extended readiness so that she will be capable of being regenerated if we have strategic notice that she will be needed. As such, HMS Albion will take HMS Bulwark's place in extended readiness and HMS Bulwark will be regenerated from extended readiness and maintained so that she can be ready to deliver defence outputs if required.
All discussions with Babcock International Group Plc on the LPD programme of work have related to the delivery of the original contract.
Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent estimate he has made of the number and proportion of single living accommodation bed spaces that meet building regulation standards.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
All Single Living Accommodation (SLA) bedspaces built since the 1960s - when the Building Regulations came into force - have been required to meet the standards imposed by the Regulations.
The Crown has immunity and exemption from the procedural requirements of the Building Regulations in the UK, but Departmental policy mandates that all building works must comply with the minimum standards imposed by the Building Regulations. This includes the routine safety assessments, maintenance and improvement programmes applied to all SLA buildings constructed prior to the Regulations.
The MOD's Building Regulations Compliance System (BRCS) is designed to broadly replicate the civilian Building Control process and builds on the safety culture within the MOD. BRCS also applies to building work overseas. The Defence Infrastructure Organisation's Building Control Compliance Authority ensures compliance with the procedures of the BRCS, the technical application of Building Regulations, and selects projects for audit.
Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 23 January 2024 to Question 10351 on Armed Forces: Housing, if he will provide a regional breakdown of those figures.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The table below provides a breakdown per region of the number of Service Family Accommodation (SFA) which have been treated for damp and mould, loss of heating, loss of hot water, loss of water supply, electrical faults, and pest infestation since 1 April 2022.
As previously advised, the damp and mould figures are provided from February 2023 and issues relating to the loss of heating and hot water are not recorded separately as boiler faults often affect both.
The 1,674 SFA properties which had been treated for damp and mould was reported as at 10:00 hours on 18 January 2024 from the live reporting system. The end of day final figure recorded for 18 January 2024 was 1,679, as shown in the table below.
Issue | No. of SFA in South East | No. of SFA in South West | No. of SFA in Central | No. of SFA in North | Total no. of SFA properties | Supporting Notes |
Damp and mould (provided from February 2023) | 700 | 656 | 174 | 149 | 1,679 |
|
Loss of heating and hot water | 8,120 | 9,117 | 3,330 | 3,535 | 24,102 | This figure includes all repairs associated with heating such as condensate pipes freezing in extremely cold weather, a faulty single radiator valve, a lack of hot water to individual taps and are not limited to just a total loss of heating or water loss. |
Loss of water supply | 9 | 13 | 21 | 5 | 48 |
|
Electrical faults | 8,981 | 9,490 | 7,371 | 4,044 | 29,886 | The electrical fault figure includes faults such as light bulb changes, one hob of an electric oven not working and electric shower issues. It does not always relate to any safety issue or total loss of electricity. |
Pest infestation | 1,874 | 1,473 | 1,125 | 651 | 5,123 | Pest control requests are responded to within 3 hours if an emergency, and within 15 days if routine. |
Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to page 22 of his Department's UK Armed Forces Defence Accommodation Strategy, published in October 2022, for what reason the target of no more than 10% of service family accommodation properties being vacant by September 2023 was not met; and whether he has set a new vacancy rate target.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Ministry of Defence (MOD) 10% void rate remains a valid target, however, a revised achievement date of 1 November 2026 was agreed with the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in June 2023.
The Modernised Accommodation Offer (MAO) will significantly increase eligibility and demand for Service Family Accommodation (SFA), which will be satisfied through the use of void SFA. This has changed the planning assumptions on which the original target was set and to dispose of void SFA ahead of MAO would increase reliance on the Private Rental Sector (PRS), creating additional, avoidable long-term costs to the MOD.
Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether he has had discussions with the Secretary of State for the Home Department on the use of RAF planes to transport asylum seekers to Rwanda.
Answered by Leo Docherty - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)
The Secretary of State for Defence has frequent discussions with the Secretary of State for the Home Department on issues affecting their Departments.
Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much and what proportion of the energy used by his Department is from renewable sources.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
In financial year (FY) 2022-23 1.2% of Ministry of Defence (MOD) electricity consumption was generated directly from renewable sources. The majority of MOD electricity supply comes from the National Grid, of which a sizable proportion is generated from renewable sources. The proportion of renewable sources used in the National Grid varies but based on Government figures published for the UK in December 2023, renewable generation reached 44.5%.
MOD's energy consumption figures are published in the Department's Annual Report and Accounts (ARAC).
Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will make an estimate of his Department's contribution to the Government's total carbon emissions in the last 12 months.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Ministry of Defence (MOD) assesses carbon emissions at the end of the Financial Year. (FY) Once the data has been gathered for FY 2023-24 the breakdown of the Department's carbon emissions will be published as part of the MOD Annual Report and Accounts. In the last published Greening Government Commitment Report MOD emissions made up 53.7% of the total Government emissions.
Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many fires broke out on Royal Navy warships in (a) 2020, (b) 2021, (c) 2022, (d) 2023 and (e) 2024 as of 19 March 2024.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The table below shows the numbers of fires that have broken out on Royal Navy warships since 2020.
Year | Number of reported fires |
2020 | 24 |
2021 | 23 |
2022 | 19 |
2023 | 24 |
2024 (as of 22 March 2024) | 5 |
All of the fires listed were considered minor and were extinguished by first responder firefighters.