Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence,with reference to Figure 9 of the Defence Equipment Plan 2017, what estimate he has made of the (a) gross savings and (b) net savings within the identified Total Forecast Savings in that plan.

The Total Forecast Savings shown in Figure 9 of the Equipment Plan 2017 summary report are composed of efficiencies from Equipment Support projects, the Submarine Enterprise Performance Programme (SEPP) and the Complex Weapons Pipeline (CWP). Savings delivered by the CWP have been reported as 'gross savings' and 'net savings' due to the two baseline cost estimates against which these efficiencies are assessed (see paragraph 24c of the Equipment Plan 2017 summary report). This structure is unique to the CWP efficiencies and therefore not applicable to either the Equipment Support or SEPP efficiencies.