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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2015-11-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to page 80 of the Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015, what the 170 investments to sustain and enhance defence capabilities are.

Mr Philip Dunne

The National Security Strategy and Strategic Defence and Security Review 2015 (Cm 9161) set out the range of capabilities that, taken together, will sustain and enhance our ability to fulfil Defence’s contribution to UK National Security.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2015-11-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what estimate he has made of the reduction in civilian headcount in his Department required to meet the efficiency and reform savings announced in the Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015 for the 2015-16 financial year and in each of the next five such years.

Mark Lancaster

The civilian staff reductions announced as part of the Strategic Defence and Security Review will be managed in a number of different ways. In the short term, the Ministry of Defence has agreed to make further savings and adjustments in this current financial year as part of the Government’s commitment to reducing the deficit. This is still on-going and may mean restrictions on recruitment.

Over the longer term, a number of change programmes already under way across the Department are reducing our civilian workforce. These programmes will continue, and individuals are already aware if they are affected. We will also drive forward programmes to consider better ways of delivering services, and explore opportunities to deliver outputs in more efficient or innovative ways.

We are confident these programmes will deliver the required reductions to meet the efficiency and reform savings announced in the Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2015-11-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, for what reasons the projected in-service date for the first of the Successor class submarines has been delayed by two years; and if he will make a statement.

Mr Philip Dunne

Designing and building submarines is one of the largest programmes and one of the most complex activities that the Ministry of Defence and UK Industry has ever undertaken. It is the purpose of a design phase to improve our understanding of costs and timescales, which we have now done. The current estimates reflect what we have learned since the design phase began.

As stated in the Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) 2015 (Cm9161), our latest estimate of the total cost to manufacture the four Successor submarines reflects greater maturity of the design and understanding of the supply chain, amounts to £31 billion; we will also set a contingency of £10 billion. This level of contingency represents about 35% of the costs to completion and is a prudent estimate based on past experience of large, complex projects.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2015-11-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether he plans to change the payment of annual increments to military staff between 2015-16 and 2020-21.

Penny Mordaunt

This Government has no plans to remove incremental pay or annual pay increases for serving members of the Armed Forces.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2015-11-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what estimate he has made of projected savings in his Department arising from the imposition of civilian pay restraint in the 2015-16 financial year and each of the next five such years.

Mark Lancaster

The estimated Ministry of Defence (MOD) civilian paybill saving in 2015-16 from pay restraint is £10 million.

The Summer Budget confirmed that the Government would fund public sector pay awards at 1% for four years from 2016-17 onwards.

The estimated saving for MOD civilians from this pay restraint is £254 million over the next five years as detailed below.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2015-11-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to his Department’s planned savings in the Strategic Defence and Security Review 2015, what plans he has to reduce the number of civilian staff in his Department.

Mark Lancaster

The civilian staff reductions announced as part of the Strategic Defence and Security Review will be managed in a number of different ways. In the short term, the Ministry of Defence has agreed to make further savings and adjustments in this current financial year as part of the Government’s commitment to reducing the deficit. This is still on-going and may mean restrictions on recruitment.

Over the longer term, a number of change programmes already under way across the Department are reducing our civilian workforce. These programmes will continue, and individuals are already aware if they are affected. We will also drive forward programmes to consider better ways of delivering services, and explore opportunities to deliver outputs in more efficient or innovative ways.

We are confident these programmes will deliver the required reductions to meet the efficiency and reform savings announced in the Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2015-11-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what estimate he has made of the level of potential efficiency in the equipment budget in (a) 2015-16, (b) 2016-17, (c) 2017-18, (d) 2018-19, (e) 2019-20 and (f) 2020-21.

Mr Philip Dunne

We were already planning to deliver efficiency savings in the equipment budget as outlined in the Defence Equipment Plan 2015 published on 22 October 2015, available in the Library of The House.

Following the Spending Review and Strategic Defence and Security Review (Cm9161), the total amount of equipment efficiency savings we plan to make is equivalent to 3% of the equipment budget in 2016-17 rising to 6% of the equipment budget by 2020-21.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2015-11-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what estimate he has made of the cost of redundancy payments arising from meeting the Strategic Defence and Security Review 2015 target of reducing civilian staff numbers by 41,000.

Mark Lancaster

A number of change programmes are already under way to reduce Ministry of Defence civilian workforce numbers. The remaining savings will be made through new studies that will identify opportunities for more efficient and innovative ways of working.