Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, for what reasons equipment cannibalisation within the Royal Navy has increased.

The Royal Navy (RN) continues to deliver their operational commitments at home and overseas. Cannibalisation is a recognised Defence practice for satisfying a materiel demand within a required delivery date and has been in place for many years in the Armed Forces. It is used only when all other sources of supply have been explored and is essential to protecting the operational programmes of our units.

The operational imperative for the RN often dictates that cannibalisation remains the best solution. While it is the case that the percentage of cannibalisation has risen over the period of the report, it represents only 0.4% of all equipment issued to the RN.

The RN is working closely with other organisations within the Ministry of Defence (MOD) to optimise the balance between equipment and system reliability and the purchase of spares and stock inventory. The RN has introduced an "in Service Capability Management" organisation which clearly attributes accountability and responsibility for platform performance, driving improvements in availability, reliability, sustainability and affordability.

The RN will now use the information from the Report to monitor trends more closely, review the impact of cost saving decisions, aiming to improve support and greater efficiency.

The MOD continues to invest in advanced modelling of their inventory requirement to ensure that the requirements of complex operations, technologically advanced equipment and high tempo programmes are achieved. This investment ensures that cannibalisation remains a last resort option. However, there is no evidence that this recognised practice is having a demoralising effect on members of the RN.