Oral Answers to Questions

Philip Hollobone Excerpts

Monday 14th July 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Francois]

The reason we have been able to announce more than £1 billion of investment in equipment for our armed forces is the careful financial management we have had to undertake because of the financial train crash we inherited from Opposition Members.

[Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)]

2. What policies he is pursuing to prevent political disintegration in Afghanistan similar to that occurring in Iraq after NATO forces leave.

[The Secretary of State for Defence (Mr Philip Hammond)]

There are significant differences between Iraq and Afghanistan. Subject to the conclusion of a status of forces agreement with NATO, the alliance plans to continue to support the Afghan security forces and the Security Ministries as part of the Resolute Support mission. NATO countries reaffirmed the Chicago summit commitments of $4.1 billion a year towards Afghan national security force sustainment, helping to underpin the long-term stability of Afghanistan. We look forward to the status of forces agreement being completed as one of the first acts of the incoming Afghan President.

[Mr Hollobone]

Two things seem to have caught everyone by surprise in Iraq: the very poor intelligence picture that the west has had on the caliphate forces; and the fact that nobody seems to have understood how weak the response of the official Iraqi armed forces was going to be to the Sunni insurgency. Can my right hon. Friend assure me that those two big failures will not be repeated in Afghanistan?

[Mr Hammond]

It is important to note that the failure of the Iraqi security forces was a failure of political coherence, not a failure in combat. Where they engaged in combat, they performed adequately. It was where they failed to engage at all that the problem arose. We expect to have far better situational awareness in Afghanistan, because of the continuing engagement through Operation Resolute Support in that country.

Oral Answers to Questions

Philip Hollobone Excerpts

Monday 12th May 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I have been saving up the hon. Member for Kettering (Mr Hollobone) as a favoured delicacy of the House.

[Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)]

Is there any evidence that the recent developments in Ukraine are impressing upon all of our NATO allies the importance of spending at least 2% of their GDP on defence?

[Mr Hammond]

I assure my hon. Friend that the question of the levels of defence spending among NATO allies and commitments to future defence spending will be an important theme at the NATO summit in Wales later this year.

Armed Forces Restructuring

Philip Hollobone Excerpts

Thursday 23rd January 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hammond]

I can confirm that it is this Government who have enshrined the armed forces covenant in law and have very positively driven the armed forces covenant programme since that time, creating the community covenant and the corporate covenant, which now play an important part in the overall programme. My hon. Friend also asked me about Reaper drones post-Afghanistan, stretching the statement on redundancy to its maximum limit. None the less, I say to him that we expect unmanned aerial vehicles to form a permanent and significant part of our future aerial capability.

[Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)]

If 18 medical and dental posts are to be lost from the RAF and the Royal Navy, what efforts are being made, and what incentives are being provided, to ensure that such experienced and dedicated personnel find new careers in the NHS where their skills are badly needed?

[Mr Hammond]

Such people are inherently employable. Almost all of them will be absorbed pretty much immediately into the NHS. The priority challenge for us is to ensure that as they make that transition into the NHS, they join the reserves to continue playing a part in delivering Britain’s military capability.

IT Systems (Army Recruitment)

Philip Hollobone Excerpts

Tuesday 14th January 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hammond]

That is difficult to say because, by definition, when we talk about recruits falling through the cracks, we are essentially talking about people who have become frustrated with the delay in the process and simply dropped out and gone away. We are seeking to track those people and to go back and re-engage them, as it were, but I know from anecdotal evidence—e-mails I get in my personal e-mail account—that a number of people have just got fed up with the system and given up. The Army is acutely conscious that we cannot afford to waste any potential recruits.

[Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)]

Will the Secretary of State confirm that the Royal Marines are outside this Army recruitment system because they come under the Navy recruitment platform? I am slightly alarmed to hear that he intends to roll this system out to the Navy and the RAF. What lessons might the Army learn from naval and RAF recruitment, and what efforts are being made to recruit from our great pool of cadet forces across all three services?

[Mr Hammond]

There are several questions there. First, the IT platform—the management of the process—is intended to provide a tri-service platform, and once it is fully operational, it will provide savings to the Navy and Air Force as well. Cadets provide an opportunity to showcase careers in the armed services, and we know that significant numbers of recruits have cadet experience. I want to be clear that we should support young people who join the cadets, and when they are interested in a career in the armed services, we should support them to explore the possibilities of such a career. As my hon. Friend will know, we are also committed to rolling out an increased number of combined cadet forces in state schools, to mirror the great success that those established combined cadet forces in independent schools have already demonstrated.

Oral Answers to Questions

Philip Hollobone Excerpts

Monday 16th December 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Dunne]

As the hon. Lady might be aware, last July we announced the defence cyber-protection policy, which works in conjunction with industry to develop awareness of cyber-defences across the 13 largest defence contractors and with the SME representatives, the trade associations. We are working closely with industry to develop cyber-defensive capabilities.

[Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)]

2. How much humanitarian assistance has been provided by his Department to (a) the Philippines and (b) other parts of the world in 2013; and how much funding for such assistance has been reimbursed to his Department to date.

[Mrs Anne McGuire (Stirling) (Lab)]

3. What assessment he has made of the Royal Navy’s involvement in the relief operation in the Philippines.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Minister for the Armed Forces (Mr Mark Francois)]

Operation Patwin was the principal humanitarian relief operation to which the UK armed forces contributed in 2013. The armed forces supported Department for International Development efforts using assets including HMS Illustrious, HMS Daring, two RAF C-17 strategic lift aircraft, an RAF C-130 tactical lift aircraft and a logistics support team in the Philippines. The civilian transport in the area improved, and DFID agreed that military support was no longer required after 10 December. The marginal cost to the MOD is estimated at about £10 million. This sum will be reimbursed by DFID under the terms of a memorandum of understanding covering military support to humanitarian assistance missions.

[Mr Hollobone]

The public response to the Philippines aid appeal shows that this is international aid that everyone can support, and our service men and women have done this country proud in the help they have provided to the Philippines. Given that the defence budget is the most challenging of any departmental budget in Whitehall, will my right hon. Friend assure the House that every time Her Majesty’s armed forces assist in a humanitarian response, it will be counted towards the UK’s aid target, not on top of it?

[Mr Francois]

As my hon. Friend will know, there are some complex definitions relating to exactly how such aid is counted, but I assure him that we count it whenever we can. I can also reassure him that the marginal cost of that operation will indeed be recouped from the Department for International Development under the MOU to which I referred.

Defence Procurement

Philip Hollobone Excerpts

Tuesday 10th December 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hammond]

No; the first phase of the overall project was about designing what we required in DE&S and looking at how the interface would work with the devolved customer—the devolution of budgets to the front-line commands is also a new step that we have introduced. We have also resourced the work on developing the DE&S plus model since we launched the MatStrat—matériel strategy—competition earlier this year, so that work has had proper resourcing. Although the proposal that has been put forward is nowhere near as detailed as that put forward by the private sector bidder for the GoCo proposition—as it is only right to expect—it is a sound framework for building a public sector solution to the challenge we face in DE&S.

[Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)]

Having visited Abbey Wood with the armed forces parliamentary scheme, may I congratulate my right hon. Friend on being bold and innovative in trying to reform the massive defence procurement system? Can he give the House his best examples under the current system of something that has been procured well and something that has been procured badly, and the lessons learnt from both?

[Mr Hammond]

There are countless examples of excellent procurement results in the UOR—urgent operational requirement—system. Indeed, it is common ground among Members who take an interest in this issue that we have to try to import some of the lessons from the UOR system into the routine procurement system. I do not want to pre-empt the major projects review that the National Audit Office will publish in the new year, but I can promise my hon. Friend that he will see programmes that deliver on time and within budget on a scale that he will not have seen before. That is a sign of the progress that is being made, although there is much further to go.

Aircraft Carriers and UK Shipbuilding

Philip Hollobone Excerpts

Wednesday 6th November 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hammond]

I have not confirmed the new timetable for the Type 26. It was always our intention that we would mature the design fully before we placed a contract, in order to avoid the mistakes of the past. The current planning assumption is that we will order 13 vessels.

[Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)]

When we talk about aircraft carriers, we tend to focus on their construction, but, of course, when they become operational they will require trained crews. With which navies are we co-operating to train the requisite personnel and might there be expanded opportunities in places such as Portsmouth for onshore training in the run-up to deployment?

[Mr Hammond]

A certain amount of training can be done synthetically onshore, but I am grateful to my hon. Friend because he gives me the opportunity to reiterate publicly and on the record our gratitude to the United States navy and the United States marine corps, who are assisting us in keeping alive our carrier skills during a period when we are not operating fixed-wing aircraft off UK carriers. We have pilots and deck officers embedded in the US navy and the US marine corps and we will develop our fleet of F-35B aircraft, with the first operational squadron based in the United States at Eglin air base. It will return to the UK in 2017 as a trained squadron ready to stand up immediately on its arrival. Without that support from the US, we would be struggling to get back into the carrier business. We should be immensely grateful.

Oral Answers to Questions

Philip Hollobone Excerpts

Monday 4th November 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Philip Hammond]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend—nice try. As he knows, however, it will be decided in the 2015 strategic defence and security review whether or not to bring into operation the second carrier, HMS Prince of Wales.

[Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)]

Given the recent increase in its centrifuge capability, and that there is no plausible use for the amount of uranium it has enriched to 20% and beyond, how close does my right hon. Friend feel that Iran is to developing a nuclear warhead that is ballistically deliverable to either Tel Aviv or Riyadh?

[Mr Philip Hammond]

I do not want to speculate on how close Iran could be to developing any kind of warhead, but I reassure my hon. Friend that the Government support the process of engagement with the Iranian regime to test whether it is serious when it says that it wants to negotiate with the west.

Reserve Forces

Philip Hollobone Excerpts

Wednesday 3rd July 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hammond]

It is an additional unit.

[Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)]

Employer support will be crucial. There is a Queen’s award for business, a Queen’s award for technology and a Queen’s award for exports. Might there not be a Queen’s award for supporting the armed forces reserves?

[Mr Hammond]

We explored that in the consultation. We have decided to proceed via the corporate covenant, which already provides for recognition for employers who support the services broadly, including the reserve service, and provides them with a logo that they can put on their letterhead.

Better Defence Acquisition

Philip Hollobone Excerpts

Monday 10th June 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hammond]

As I said to the shadow Secretary of State, if we went down this route, we would expect to award a contract next year and for it to be effective by the last quarter of 2014. We would then expect there to be a two-stage process towards the full GoCo-isation—if I may use that term—of DE&S. We would expect savings and efficiencies to be generated from the very beginning, and from the second year of operation we would expect there to be cashable benefits.

[Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)]

I congratulate my right hon. Friend on his statement. Were he to save the full £1.3 billion to £2.2 billion of waste that he has identified, he would be able to buy an extra one or two Type 45 destroyers a year and to start to rebuild the Royal Navy back to its proper size. Will he confirm that this is the biggest waste black hole in the MOD budget and that no other hole in the budget has a bigger annual cost?

[Mr Hammond]

It is certainly our assessment that the frictional costs of inefficiencies within defence procurement are the biggest single challenge that we face and our biggest single opportunity. I was at Portsmouth the week before last and talked to the commander of the dockyard. He told me that once the Queen Elizabeth carriers are berthed there, he will be making provision for some 200,000 tonnes of fighting ships to be tied up in the harbour. That will be largest tonnage that he or his predecessors have had to make provision for since the 1960s.