Asked by: Bernard Jenkin (Conservative - Harwich and North Essex)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will set out in detail where he expects to be able to fulfill the commitment of £10.7bn included in the spending projections on page 73 of the Defence Investment Plan.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
Defence is committed to efficiency and ensuring every pound spent on Defence is used in the best way for our Armed Forces and the taxpayer. Section 4 of the Defence Investment Plan (DIP), published 30 June 2026, outlines our extensive Reform and Efficiency Plan. The total efficiency commitment of £10.7 billion over the period FY2026-27 to FY2029-30 identified in the Defence Investment Plan is broken down by key delivery area at Table 18. This includes service redesign, reductions to the Civil Service workforce, reduced expenditure on External Assistance, leveraging the use of digital and AI, driving efficiency through our estate and infrastructure and a reformed approach to acquisition. The detail of which is set out in Section 4 of the DIP. Table 21 provides a breakdown of the expected delivery of this efficiency target across each year from 2026-27 to 2029-30, split by Resource Departmental Expenditure Limit (RDEL - with a total target of £7 billion) and Capital Departmental Expenditure Limit (CDEL - with a total target of £3.7 billion), and the level of maturity of these plans. Delivery is backed by an additional £500 million investment from the Exchequer as part of a ring-fenced Transformation Fund to accelerate productivity enhancing investments.
Asked by: Bernard Jenkin (Conservative - Harwich and North Essex)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the fire in a submarine construction facility in Barrow-in-Furness on delivery of the AUKUS submarine programme.
Answered by Maria Eagle
I refer the right hon. Member to the written statement I laid in the House on 30 October 2024 on this issue. The UK remains committed to delivering the SSN-AUKUS Optimal Pathway announced by the three leaders of the AUKUS nations in March 2023. The UK’s continued commitment to AUKUS was recently demonstrated by the Defence Secretary hosting his Australian and US counterparts at the Old Royal Naval College in London to drive forward progress on AUKUS.
Asked by: Bernard Jenkin (Conservative - Harwich and North Essex)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many staff in his Department are working on matters related to (a) European policy, (b) the future of Europe, (c) reform of the EU, (d) the renegotiation of the UK's relationship with the EU, (e) the EU referendum and (f) the consequences of the EU referendum; how many full-time equivalent staff are working on such matters; what the (i) staff and (ii) other cost of such work is; what proportion of that work is undertaken by such staff on (A) communications, (B) strategy and (C) policy; whether his Department has established any specific unit or units to deal with those matters; to whom such (1) staff and (2) units report; whether his Department has issued guidelines to staff on those matters; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Julian Brazier
The Government is fighting hard to fix the aspects of our EU membership that cause so much frustration in the UK - so we get a better deal for the UK and secure our future. Departments are appropriately resourced to support the Government's priorities in Europe, including the renegotiation and referendum.