Asked by: Lord West of Spithead (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have held with Russian oil and gas exploration entities operating in the British Antarctic Territory, and what agreements have been made.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Antarctic Treaty and its Protocol on Environmental Protection prohibits the commercial exploitation of minerals. The Antarctic Treaty Parties, which includes Russia, reaffirmed their ongoing commitment to this prohibition in a Declaration on Climate Change and the Antarctic, agreed by consensus in June 2023. Russia has a long-standing programme of surveying and mapping the geology of Antarctica, but has repeatedly assured the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting that these activities are for scientific purposes, and of their commitment to sharing data through the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research's Seismic Data Library System. There is no evidence of any drilling or extraction activities. We will continue to monitor that situation and Russia's activities.
Asked by: Lord West of Spithead (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government when HMS Somerset will carry out test firings of the new Naval Strike Missile.
Answered by Earl of Minto - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
HMS Somerset is available if needed, whilst undertaking a period of planned survey and defect repair work. The completion of a comprehensive trials package will culminate with operational acceptance of the new Naval Strike Missile. In order to preserve the operational security of the Fleet, the Royal Navy does not disclose the dates of planned test firings in advance.
Asked by: Lord West of Spithead (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the operational status of HMS Somerset.
Answered by Earl of Minto - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
HMS Somerset is available if needed, whilst undertaking a period of planned survey and defect repair work. The completion of a comprehensive trials package will culminate with operational acceptance of the new Naval Strike Missile. In order to preserve the operational security of the Fleet, the Royal Navy does not disclose the dates of planned test firings in advance.
Asked by: Lord West of Spithead (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of recent trends in recruitment and retention of civilian seafarers in the Royal Fleet Auxiliary.
Answered by Earl of Minto - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) continues to meet all its Operational Commitments around the globe and continues to steadfastly support Royal Navy (RN) vessels on Operations worldwide.
Recruitment and retention of staff are a priority for the RFA and there are a number of initiatives underway to support this.
For recruitment, the RFA is fostering relationships with universities and colleges to raise awareness of the opportunities available, planning to launch a graduate engineer scheme, sponsoring academic top up schemes to attract newly qualified engineers, and introducing a mechanism for seamless transfer to the RFA for RN service leavers. In addition to this work, the RFA plans to release a focused RFA recruitment marketing campaign.
For retention, the RFA is undertaking a number of initiatives which include: enhancing human resources management with more efficient, digitised processes for claims and reporting; maximising development opportunities; enabling participation in team building and physical activities; introducing a dedicated wellbeing team and creating new and exciting shore posts.
Asked by: Lord West of Spithead (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government what recent discussions they have had with recognised trade unions concerning the Royal Fleet Auxiliary.
Answered by Earl of Minto - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Ministry of Defence has regular scheduled discussions and meetings with both Nautilus International and the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers in accordance with an established Partnership Agreement.
The most recent discussions have taken place during April 2024.
Asked by: Lord West of Spithead (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many officers and other ranks there are in the Royal Fleet Auxiliary.
Answered by Earl of Minto - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
As of 1 January 2024, there are 623 Officers and 1046 Other Ranks within the RFA.
Asked by: Lord West of Spithead (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they plan to appoint a new Commodore of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary.
Answered by Earl of Minto - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
An external recruitment campaign for the Senior Civil Servant Pay Band 1 position of Deputy Director Royal Fleet Auxiliary had an application closing date of 24 March 2024. The selection process is ongoing, and the result will be announced in due course on conclusion of that process.
Asked by: Lord West of Spithead (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Lord True on 15 April (HL Deb col 844), whether all those ships mentioned have funding in the Ministry of Defence programme.
Answered by Earl of Minto - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Type 26, Type 31, Dreadnought, Astute and SSN-AUKUS are all fully funded, along with the Fleet Solid Support ships, and one of two Multi-Role Ocean Surveillance Vessels, (MROS) has been procured. Funding for these programmes is split between the Navy and Defence Nuclear Enterprise, which primarily funds Dreadnought, Astute and SSN-AUKUS.
The Multi-Role Support Ship, the Type 32, the Type 83 programmes and the second MROS are all within, or in the process of, moving into the concept phase and therefore further work is required to establish their funding requirements. During this phase the procurement and whole life costs of the programme are determined. The programme and procurement strategy for these programmes will be decided following the concept phase. This is consistent with programmes of this size and complexity at this stage of their development.
Asked by: Lord West of Spithead (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether reports of RFA Fort Victoria being in "poor" condition in the Cammell Laird Shipyard mean that she is not immediately available to support an unplanned carrier group deployment assuming sufficient personnel can be found to man her.
Answered by Earl of Minto - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
RFA FORT VICTORIA is in a scheduled refit package to prepare her for future service. Her upkeep will enable her to fulfil future operations.
All Royal Navy (RN) ships rotate through planned operating cycles and this results in individual ships being at various levels of readiness at any one time in accordance with long-term operating schedules and operational needs; they remain in service during these periods but may not be deployable.
It is our policy not to disclosure the fine details of forward availability forecasts of individual ships as this would, or would be likely to prejudice the capability, effectiveness or security of the Armed Forces. The RN does publish annual figures for readiness days, the first of which was released in November 2023.
Asked by: Lord West of Spithead (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by The Earl of Minto on 3 April (HL3550), whether RFA Fort Victoria is the UK’s sole solid support ship until 2031 when the first of the new Fleet Solid Support ships is accepted into service.
Answered by Earl of Minto - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The first Fleet Solid Support ship (FSS) is expected to enter service by 2031, after first of class trials and equipment fits.
In order to preserve the Operational Security of the Fleet, individual out of service dates are no longer released but the Royal Navy expects to manage the operational status of RFA Fort Victoria as necessary to maintain solid support ship availability during the capability transition period.