Logistic Commodities and Services (Transformation)

Monday 16th July 2012 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence (Peter Luff)]

I can today announce the launch of an initial phase of a planned transformation project within Logistic Commodities and Services (LCS), part of defence equipment and support.

The primary role for LCS is to provide support to military operations and force generation by undertaking procurement and inventory management of all non-explosive commodity items, including food, clothing, fuel, and medical supplies. This also involves the storage and distribution of these commodity items, together with all other non-explosive stock across defence.

The transformation project aims to consider how we can improve inventory management and stock control, rationalise current stock holdings, improve and rationalise storage infrastructure (releasing surplus for disposal), improve commodity procurement and logistic processes, and optimise the size of the LCS organisation. Under the current model, each commodity area operates in isolation. The storage infrastructure itself requires investment to improve its condition and to rationalise the numerous dispersed locations.

This initial phase of the project, the assessment phase, has now commenced and will explore the alternative delivery models available and whether these would represent value for money. This work will explore two options for delivering support in the future; industry integration and an in-house developed value for money benchmark. No decisions on the final operating model or locations will be made until the assessment phase is complete. This phase will take a minimum of 12 months to complete. The formal process of TU consultation will be followed throughout the project.