Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how long the vanguard-class submarines have been on patrol at sea on average in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Leo Docherty
The Royal Navy has successfully maintained Operation RELENTLESS, the Continuous At Sea Deterrent, for an unbroken 55 years. We do not disclose details of the Operation, including the duration of time spent at sea, as such information could be used to undermine the security and capability of the mission and our personnel.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many nuclear site events there were at (a) Coulport and (b) Faslane in the last 12 months.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Shadow Secretary of State for Defence
The table below provides the number of Nuclear Site Event Reports (NSERs) at Coulport and Faslane recorded between January 2023 to April 2024. These are shown according to their categorisation using criteria agreed locally in 2015.
Nuclear Site Events- 2023 | Category A | Category B | Category C | Category D | Below Scale |
Coulport | 0 | 0 | 4 | 17 | 6 |
Faslane | 1 | 4 | 12 | 37 | 77 |
Nuclear Site Events- 2024 | Category A | Category B | Category C | Category D | Below Scale |
Coulport | 0 | 0 | 5 | 7 | 0 |
Faslane | 0 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 2 |
In line with Industry Good Practice and in common with other defence and civil nuclear sites, His Majesty’s Naval Base Clyde has a well-established system for raising NSERs.
NSERs are raised to foster a robust safety culture that learns from experience, whether that is equipment failures, human error, procedural failings, documentation shortcoming or near-misses.
The safety significance of all reported events remains low and are below Level 1, the lowest of the seven-point Internal Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES).
None of the events caused harm to the health of any member of staff on the Naval Base or to any member of the public or have resulted in any radiological impact to the environment.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many nuclear site events there were at (a) Coulport and (b) Faslane in the last 12 months.
Answered by Alex Chalk
The table below provides the number of Nuclear Site Event Reports (NSERs) at Coulport and Faslane recorded between January 2022 to March 2023. These are shown according to their categorisation using criteria agreed locally in 2015.
Nuclear Site Events- 2022 | Category A | Category B | Category C | Category D | Below Scale |
Coulport | 0 | 2 | 7 | 15 | 40 |
Faslane | 0 | 0 | 20 | 73 | 47 |
Nuclear Site Events- 2023 | Category A | Category B | Category C | Category D | Below Scale |
Coulport | 0 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 7 |
Faslane | 0 | 1 | 6 | 26 | 10 |
In line with Industry Good Practice and in common with other defence and civil nuclear sites, His Majesty’s Naval Base Clyde has a well-established system for raising NSERs.
NSERs are raised to foster a robust safety culture that learns from experience, whether that is equipment failures, human error, procedural failings, documentation shortcoming or near-misses.
The safety significance of all reported events remains low and are below Level 1, the lowest of the seven-point Internal Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES).
None of the events caused harm to the health of any member of staff on the Naval Base or to any member of the public or have resulted in any radiological impact to the environment.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 21 April 2022 to Question 154058 on Clyde Naval Base and RNAD Coulport: Navy, and with reference to the Answer of 27 April 2021 to Question 184494 on Navy: Scotland, for what reason providing the information requested would incur disproportionate cost.
Answered by Alec Shelbrooke
In preparation for the answer of 21 April 2022 to Question 154058 the Department understood that a manual trawl through personnel files would be required to answer the question, which resulted in a disproportionate cost response. A different methodology was used for the answer in April 2021 and using that same approach I am now able to provide the following information in answer to the hon. Member's Questions 154058, 154059 and 154060 of 14 April 2022.
At 1 April 2022, a total of 3,751 uniformed Royal Navy Service Personnel were stationed at locations in Argyll and Bute, which comprise the Faslane and Coulport sites. Of these, 1,367 personnel were Scottish taxpayers, which translates to 36% of the total.
At 1 April 2022, 534 uniformed contractors were employed at Faslane. Of these, 478 were Scottish taxpayers, which translates to 90% of the total.
At 1 April 2022, 409 uniformed contractors were employed at Coulport. Of these, 364 were Scottish taxpayers, which translates to 89% of the total.
These figures reflect Ministry of Defence Police and Ministry of Defence Guard Service employees, who are Ministry of Defence civilian employees. The term 'uniformed contractor' has been translated to mean those employees who are neither civilian contractor, non-uniform civilian, or Service Personnel.
At 1 April 2022, 1,026 civilian employees who are not contractors were employed at Faslane. Of these, 942 were Scottish taxpayers, which translates to 92% of the total.
At 1 April 2022, 479 civilian employees who are not contractors were employed at Coulport. Of these, 434 were Scottish taxpayers, which translates to 91% of the total.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many financial mitigation payments have been made to staff in his Department based in Scotland in respect of the Scottish rate of income tax; and at what salary level those payments began.
Answered by Leo Docherty
It will take some time to collate the data required to answer the hon. Member's question. I will write with the requested information in due course.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many nuclear safety events there have been at (a) Coulport and (b) Faslane in each of the last three years.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
The safety significance of all reported events remains low and are below Level 1, the lowest of the seven-point International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES).
None of the events caused harm to the health of any member of staff on the Naval Base or to any member of the public or have resulted in any radiological impact to the environment.
The table below provides the number of Nuclear Site Event Reports (NSERs) at Coulport and Faslane recorded for 2019, 2020 and 2021. These are shown according to their categorisation using criteria agreed locally in 2015.
Nuclear Site Events - 2019 | Category A | Category B | Category C | Category D | Below Scale |
Coulport | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 13 |
Faslane | 0 | 1 | 5 | 46 | 88 |
Nuclear Site Events - 2020 | Category A | Category B | Category C | Category D | Below Scale |
Coulport | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 26 |
Faslane | 0 | 0 | 1 | 26 | 96 |
Nuclear Site Events - 2021 | Category A | Category B | Category C | Category D | Below Scale |
Coulport | 0 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 32 |
Faslane | 0 | 2 | 10 | 33 | 67 |
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many safety improvement notices have been issued by the Defence Nuclear Safety Regulator in each year since 2010.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
The table below provides the number of Improvement Notices issued by the Defence Nuclear Safety Regulator since 2010.
2010 | 2 |
2011 | - |
2012 | - |
2013 | - |
2014 | - |
2015 | - |
2016 | 2 |
2017 | 1 |
2018 | 2 |
2019 | 2 |
2020 | 1 |
2021 | 1 |
2022 | - |
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much his Department has paid to Leidos for the operation of the Logistics, Commodities and Services Transformation Programme in each year since 2015.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave her on 27 April 2021 to Question 185922.
https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2021-04-22/185922
Updated figures are shown below which indicate payments the Ministry of Defence has made to Leidos to operate the Logistics, Commodities and Services Transformation programme from 2020-21 to 2022-23 to date.
Year | £million (ex-VAT) |
2020-21 | 355 |
2021-22 | 416 |
2022-23 | 16 |
The cost for 2021-22 has yet to be finalised and fully paid. The figure for 2022-23 covers the period 1 April 2022 to 19 April 2022.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much his Department has paid to AWE Management Ltd under the Atomic Weapons Establishment management and operation contract in each year since 2000.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
The following table shows the costs of AWE ML under the Management and Operations contract for each financial year since 2000-01, at outturn prices.
Financial Year | £ million |
2000-01 | 275 |
2001-02 | 264 |
2002-03 | 258 |
2003-04 | 286 |
2004-05 | 354 |
2005-06 | 493 |
2006-07 | 687 |
2007-08 | 894 |
2008-09 | 800 |
2009-10 | 870 |
2010-11 | 944 |
2011-12 | 941 |
2012-13 | 830 |
2013-14 | 901 |
2014-15 | 921 |
2015-16 | 887 |
2016-17 | 815 |
2017-18 | 867 |
2018-19 | 901 |
2019-20 | 994 |
2020-21 | 984 |
2021-22 | 266* |
*On 1 July 2021 the contract between AWE ML and MOD ended as AWE ML reverted to direct Government ownership, becoming a Non-Departmental Public Body wholly owned by the MOD.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many and what proportion of uniformed contractors based at (a) Faslane and (b) Coulport are Scottish taxpayers.
Answered by Leo Docherty
The requested figures cannot easily be disaggregated due to the format the data is held in and could only be provided at disproportionate cost. However, it will be the case that anyone who works at these locations and has a Scottish address will pay tax in Scotland. It is estimated that c.90% of staff working at these sites will be Scottish taxpayers.