Defence: UK Territorial Waters

Debate between Lord Foulkes of Cumnock and Lord Astor of Hever

Tuesday 24th March 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Astor of Hever]

My Lords, the severe pressure on the public finances in 2010 and the urgent need to bring the defence programme into balance meant that we could not retain all our existing programmes and that we had to prioritise between capabilities. The aircraft’s future high support costs were a clear factor in that decision. It is also well known that the MRA4 project suffered from repeated delays and cost overruns, and was still suffering from technical problems in 2010.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab)]

My Lords, further to the Minister’s answer to my noble friend Lord Soley, we all understand that defence is a reserved matter, but would it not be sensible to let the First Minister of Scotland know the threats from Russia so that we get a more sensible policy in relation to the Trident nuclear deterrent?

[Lord Astor of Hever]

My Lords, the noble Lord makes a very good point and I will make sure that my department passes that on to the Scotland Office.

Ukraine

Debate between Lord Foulkes of Cumnock and Lord Astor of Hever

Monday 9th March 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Astor of Hever]

My Lords, we are providing non-lethal assistance that has been requested by the Ukrainian Government to enhance the capability of their armed forces, enabling them to defend themselves better and to reduce the number of fatalities and casualties that they are suffering. All this training will be conducted well away from the conflict zone in the east.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab)]

Does the Minister recall that Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons in return for guarantees of territorial integrity from a number of countries, including Russia. Will he remind the people of this country, particularly the SNP, of that fact?

[Lord Astor of Hever]

My Lords, I do recollect the point the noble Lord made, and I agree entirely with what he says.

Scottish Independence: Faslane

Debate between Lord Foulkes of Cumnock and Lord Astor of Hever

Monday 3rd March 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Astor of Hever]

My noble friend makes a very good point. The Ministry of Defence spent more than £20 billion with UK industry in 2011-12, with a £160 billion, 10-year equipment programme. Companies based in an independent Scotland would no longer be eligible for contracts that the UK chose to place domestically for national security reasons. Where they could continue to compete, they would be pitching for business in an international market dominated by major economic powers.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab)]

My Lords, does the Minister not understand that this is an important matter, and that there is a big difference between pre-negotiation and contingency planning?

[Lord Astor of Hever]

My Lords, I cannot add anything to what I have already said.

Territorial Army

Debate between Lord Foulkes of Cumnock and Lord Astor of Hever

Wednesday 17th July 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Astor of Hever]

My noble friend makes a good point. Working with local communities is vital. We are very grateful for the support that reservists and, indeed, regulars receive from their local communities, and we hope that this will continue. While we are vacating a small number of sites, we will retain more than 300 locations across the UK where individuals can undertake service in the Army Reserve.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock]

My Lords, I declare an interest as a former member of the Territorial Army. I know that that surprises some people opposite. I may be a bit simple, but could the Minister explain the logic, when the Government are seeking to increase the number of members of the Territorial Army, of closing TA centres?

[Lord Astor of Hever]

My Lords, I am not at all surprised that the noble Lord was in the Territorial Army. He has that military demeanour, and cut a fine dash when he came into the Ministry of Defence the other day. We need to expand the Army Reserve to reflect the future liability of 30,000 trained reservists. To deliver that, the supporting structure needs to be changed. We are confident that the Army Reserve will continue to demonstrate its ability to adapt to new requirements.

Defence: Carrier Strike Capability

Debate between Lord Foulkes of Cumnock and Lord Astor of Hever

Thursday 10th May 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Astor of Hever]

No, my Lords, I do not think that it is short-termism. We are in very good company with the B-variant. The US Marine Corps uses it; it is buying a lot of Joint Strike Fighters. The Italians are also going to buy them for their carrier. It is not short-termism at all.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock]

My Lords, although everyone seems happy that we are now back on the right track, can the Minister give us an estimate of the extra abortive expenditure involved in the unnecessary adventure of cat and trap?

[Lord Astor of Hever]

My Lords, I have already given an answer to the second question. I will read it out again, but before I do I must say that I am very grateful to the noble Lord for assuring me that we are on the right track. I said that at the end of April we had committed £39 million to conversion investigations and a further £1 million to an air-to-air refuelling study. We do not consider that money to have been wasted. Changing variant was considered the best course of action at the time of the SDSR and those costs were necessarily incurred. Without a detailed investigation of the impact of carrier conversion, we would not have been in a position today to identify the significant rise in estimated costs and to decide to call a halt to the programme.

Defence: Reform

Debate between Lord Foulkes of Cumnock and Lord Astor of Hever

Monday 27th June 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Astor of Hever]

My Lords, I thank my noble friend for his questions. On the first, the joint forces command is an additional command and will have a new four-star commander. We have not yet decided, but it will probably be located at PJHQ, which is relatively accessible to the head office. However, we are still working on that. As to how the JFC will fit into the defence structure, PJHQ will sit within the JFC but the Chief of Joint Operations will continue to report direct to the Chief of the Defence Staff on the conduct of current operations.

As to whether chiefs driving around will lose of control of their services, I do not think they will. We believe that it will strengthen their position if they spend more time with their services. They will obviously be able to come to London from time to time, but we feel that they will probably want to spend much more time with their own services.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock]

The Minister will be aware that there are 19 grace and favour residences and that lavish expenses are provided to senior officers in all three services, which sits ill in the budget when people in the front line are being asked to make cutbacks. Has the noble Lord, Lord Levene, made any recommendations in relation to this and, if so, what is the Government’s response?

[Lord Astor of Hever]

My Lords, I am not aware that the noble Lord, Lord Levene, has made any comment about, as the noble Lord says, lavish residences. I have been to some of the lavish residences the noble Lord mentions and I can confirm that the chiefs use them in an important way for defence, particularly for defence diplomacy, which is a very important part of our objective at the moment.