Tag: Maria Eagle

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2015-11-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, which bases he plans to close as a result of the outcome of the Strategic Defence and Security Review 2015.

Mark Lancaster

The Footprint Strategy examines the Defence Estate across the UK, with the aim of providing a smaller more sustainable estate in support of Military capabilities. Current work to define the Defence Footprint Strategy, will contribute to the Governments commitment to release public sector land for house building in this Parliament.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2015-11-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what estimate he has made of his Department’s (a) running and (b) maintenance costs for Sentinel aircraft in each of the next five years.

Mr Philip Dunne

The 2015 Strategic Defence and Security Review announced the extended life of the Sentinel into the next decade. Detailed cost estimates are currently being finalised.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2015-11-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, for what reasons the proposed in-service date for the Successor class of submarines has been postponed.

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 2015-11-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, by when he plans for his Department to achieve its target strength for the Royal Navy Reserve.

Mr Julian Brazier

I refer the hon. Member to the Written Statement made by my right hon. Friend the previous Secretary of State for Defence (Philip Hammond) on 19 December 2013, (Official Report, column 124WS) on Future Reserves 2020, and the accompanying document that was placed in the Library of the House which sets out the planned growth of the trained strength of the Reserve Forces, together with the enlistment targets for the next five years.

I also refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 20 October 2015 to the hon. Member for Strangford (Mr Shannon) to Question 11812 which explained the improvements we have made to ensure we reach our target strength of 35,000 trained volunteer Reservists by 31 March 2019.

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 2015-12-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what his Department’s expenditure was on the Joint Service Housing Advice Office in each year since 2010.

Mark Lancaster

The Joint Service Housing Advice Office has had eight posts since 2010.

The total expenditure of individual departments, including the Joint Service Housing Advice Office, is not collated at a single point. For example, infrastructure costs (including utilities) are managed through Regional Prime Contracts which do not split out individual units. Similarly, equipment costs cannot be split out. For this reason, the total expenditure of the Joint Service Housing Advice Office cannot be provided.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2015-12-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, from which organisations his Department received bids under its proposal to make the Defence Infrastructure Organisation government-owned contractor-operated.

Mark Lancaster

The Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) has been led by a Strategic Business Partner (SBP) since September 2014. The SBP contract allowed for the Ministry of Defence (MOD) to instruct the incorporation of DIO as a Government-owned company (GovCo), subject to a value for money review.

I announced the conclusions of the review in my written statement of 10 December 2015 (Official Report, columns 55-56WS). The GovCo model would have been led by the SBP but 100% owned by the Secretary of State for Defence. A GovCo is distinct from a Government-owned contractor-operated organisation (GOCO) which has a different legal construct. The MOD has never proposed for the DIO to become a GOCO.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2016-01-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many full-time police officers worked in the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit in (a) 2013-14, (b) 2014-15 and (c) 2015-16.

Mr Edward Vaizey

The current (2015-16) established strength for the unit is;

0.5 x Detective Chief Inspector

1 x Detective Inspector

2 x Detective Sergeant

2 x Police Staff Investigator

2 x Analyst

2 x Researcher

1 x Communications officer

We do not have historical figures for staff numbers available, but the team has been of the same approximate size since inception.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2016-02-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what meetings (a) Ministers and (b) civil servants in his Department have had with (i) James Murdoch and (ii) representatives from Sky UK Limited in each year since 2012.

Mr Edward Vaizey

Details of Ministers’ and Senior Civil Servants’ meetings with external organisations, including senior media figures, are published routinely and can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/ministers-transparency-publications on Gov.uk.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2016-03-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many jobs his Department estimates would be created by the completion of the Digital Single Market.

Mr Edward Vaizey

The Department has made no estimation of the number of jobs that would be created by the Digital Single Market. According to the European Parliament, completing the Digital Single Market could add €415bn or around 3% to the EU’s GDP.