Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Lord Hammond of Runnymede and Luciana Berger(10 years, 10 months ago)
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Luciana Berger (Liverpool, Wavertree) (Lab/Co-op)
The head of Britain’s armed forces, General Sir Nick Houghton, has admitted that he faces a “huge challenge” in maintaining morale and performance. Figures that were released just the other month show that the proportion of service personnel who feel that their morale is low has gone up to 30%. That is a shocking situation. What will the Government do about it?
Mr Philip Hammond
If the hon. Lady cares to read the original interview that General Sir Nick Houghton gave to the in-house magazine, she will see that there is a slightly different slant in that story to that in some national newspapers. The Chief of the Defence Staff was saying that we have perhaps not communicated our vision of Future Force 2020 and what it offers to the people in our armed forces as well as we could or should have done. That is why I included in the list of my priorities that I gave a few moments ago the communication of the challenges and opportunities of Future Force 2020 to our own people.
Winter Weather
Debate between Lord Hammond of Runnymede and Luciana Berger(13 years, 7 months ago)
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Urgent Questions are proposed each morning by backbench MPs, and up to two may be selected each day by the Speaker. Chosen Urgent Questions are announced 30 minutes before Parliament sits each day.
Each Urgent Question requires a Government Minister to give a response on the debate topic.
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Mr Hammond
I cannot give my hon. Friend any immediate assurance that improvements will be possible on that line. I understand that the problem in that case is drifting snow, and it will take some time to clear the line and reopen it. I can tell him and the House that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change has told me that he is confident that coal supplies are adequate and that we need see no interruptions to power supplies as a result of the present cold snap.
Luciana Berger (Liverpool, Wavertree) (Lab/Co-op)
May I please have some clarification from the Secretary of State? He said earlier that 100,000 tonnes of salt are available in the strategic supply, yet the review recommended that 250,000 tonnes should be in place by the start of the winter season. Will the Secretary of State confirm that he has not fulfilled that recommendation?
Mr Hammond
That is one of the questions that the hon. Member for Garston and Halewood (Maria Eagle) asked from the Front Bench. Let me give the exact figures. Local authorities have just under 1 million tonnes of stock for their own use. The Highways Agency has 225,000 tonnes of stock for its own use, and in addition it has ordered 250,000 tonnes for a strategic stockpile, of which 107,000 tonnes have been delivered. The remainder is expected to be delivered over the next six weeks. [Interruption.] The hon. Member for Garston and Halewood says that we have not met the target. It was never intended that the 250,000 tonnes would be used up in the first week of winter. It is going to be perfectly satisfactory to have the 250,000 tonnes delivered progressively during the course of December and into early January. Much of the salt is imported by sea from very distant locations, and we expect to have it all on the ground by early January.