Asked by: Simon Kirby (Conservative - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many people working in his Department are over 65 years old; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Anna Soubry
As of 1 October 2014, the number of civilians working in the Ministry Of Defence and its Trading Funds aged 65 and over was around 1,400.
It is the Department's policy to be an all-inclusive employer. Any form of unfair discrimination or harrassment on the grounds of an individual's gender, race, disability, sexual orientation, religion or belief, marital status, age, non-standard working pattern or any other difference is totally unacceptable and therefore not tolerated in the workplace.
Asked by: Simon Kirby (Conservative - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many people with a disability work in his Department; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Anna Soubry
To build a world class Civil Service we need to recruit and retain the very best Civil Servants on merit, irrespective of whether they are disabled.
As of 1 October 2014, 47.48% (26,340) of staff in the Ministry of Defence and its Trading Funds have chosen to declare their disability status; of these, around 2,515 have made a positive disability declaration. This data is based on the numbers of employees who have chosen individually to record their disability status on the departmental Human Resource (HR) system. Any such declaration is voluntary and confidential.
Asked by: Simon Kirby (Conservative - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he has taken to insulate his departmental estate in order to improve energy efficiency; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Anna Soubry
As part of its continuing energy efficiency programme the Ministry of Defence has invested in 1,400 energy efficiency projects. These include insulation measures as well as Building Energy Management Systems, boiler controls and LED lighting. These have been delivered across 223 Defence sites both in the UK and overseas.
Energy efficiency improvements are undertaken as part of all Service Family Accommodation (SFA) upgrade programmes where appropriate. SFA improvements include new or improved loft insulation, external wall insulation and new doors, windows, boilers and heating systems.
Asked by: Simon Kirby (Conservative - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the capacity of his Department's buildings for the micro-generation of renewable energy; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Anna Soubry
Micro-generation of renewable energy is being used on the defence estate but no assessment has been made of the potential capacity for the Department's buildings. Micro-generation is one of a range of options available and investment decisions are based on value for money criteria.
Asked by: Simon Kirby (Conservative - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking to reduce water (a) usage and (b) bills in his Department; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Anna Soubry
In the UK the majority of water consumed on Ministry of Defence (MOD) sites is supplied by three Aquatrine Public Private Partnership contracts. The water supplied under these contractual arrangements equates to 95% by volume of consumption on UK MOD sites.
The MOD has reduced water consumption across its estate by 9% since 2010, thus exceeding a self-imposed target to achieve a 7% reduction in estate-wide water consumption and corresponding bills by 2015.
Work is continuing throughout the MOD estate to embed water use awareness, and achieve further reductions in water consumption. The Defence Infrastructure Organisation is implementing a Water Consumption Reduction programme, which will target 150 high demand sites to identify further water efficiency measures and improve the efficiency of water use.
Asked by: Simon Kirby (Conservative - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to ensure its services are available online; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Anna Soubry
The Ministry of Defence (MOD) already makes services available online such as Armed Forces career applications and civilian recruitment. The MOD is taking steps to ensure more of its services are available online, including:
Working to improve access to information and services for Armed Forces personnel, Reserves and families by upgrading and improving services available via the internet;
Identifying new transactional services to be redesigned to the Digital by Default service standard;
Building its digital capability through the appointment of a central digital transformation team;
and developing digital skills and professionalism across the Department.
Asked by: Simon Kirby (Conservative - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how often his Department reviews its processes regarding the logging of emails, letters and other correspondence received; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Anna Soubry
The Ministry of Defence (MOD) introduced a new IT system for logging and tracking key categories of correspondence in March 2014 when processes for correspondence were thoroughly reviewed. The MOD keeps its processes for logging correspondence under constant review.
Asked by: Simon Kirby (Conservative - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the total private finance initiative liabilities of his Department are for the next 20 years; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Philip Dunne
The total Private Finance Initiative (PFI) liability for the Ministry of Defence (MOD) over the next 20 years is £29.4 billion. The table shows the forecast annual payment (the unitary charge) due for all current MOD PFI contracts.
Year Estimated unitary charge (£ billion)
2014-15 (part year) 0.974
2015-16 1.837
2016-17 1.664
2017-18 1.666
2018-19 1.692
2019-20 1.726
2020-21 1.745
2021-22 1.727
2022-23 1.590
2023-24 1.403
2024-25 1.409
2025-26 1.367
2026-27 1.405
2027-28 1.407
2028-29 1.424
2029-30 1.356
2030-31 1.257
2031-32 1.224
2032-33 1.197
2033-34 0.889
2034-35 (part year) 0.440
The current MOD PFI portfolio covers 41 projects, including the Strategic Sealift Roll-on Roll-off Ferry and Heavy Equipment Transporter logistics vehicle, which directly support the front line. PFI arrangements are also used for a range of accommodation and infrastructure projects.
Asked by: Simon Kirby (Conservative - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking to encourage all other NATO member states to spend two per cent of their GDP on defence; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Julian Brazier
At the Wales Summit, the UK proposed that all Allies sign up publicly for the first time ever to the NATO target of spending 2% of GDP on defence, and to a range of other metrics including ensuring that 20% of that figure is spent on new capabilities. We secured this objective along with agreement that Allies would review national progress annually and that this would be discussed at future Defence Ministerial meetings and reviewed by Heads of State and Government at future Summits. Between now and the next formal Defence Ministerial in June 2015 we will be engaging with Allies and NATO to ensure the commitments we all agreed at Newport are put in place and reported against. Despite the deficit this Government inherited, we have consistently met and indeed exceeded the target and will continue to do so until the end of the spending review period.
Asked by: Simon Kirby (Conservative - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking to reduce energy costs in his Department; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Anna Soubry
The Ministry of Defence (MOD) is committed to reducing energy costs.
Details of which can be found in the Sustainable MOD Annual Report for 2013-14 at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/sustainable-mod-annual-report-2013-to-2014