Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 15 April 2024 to Question 20231 on Ministry of Defence: Aviation and with reference to page 13 of the Cabinet Office Guidance on Ministers’ gifts (given and received), travel, hospitality received and meetings with external organisations and individuals, updated on 2 April 2024, for what reason the answer does not provide the total cost of each RAF flight.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
Transparency data is provided in line with longstanding Government guidance, this includes the provision of costs for RAF flights for Ministerial travel.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to his Department's data entitled MOD's ministerial travel, October to December 2023, published on 22 March 2024, whether the published costs of the RAF flights taken by Ministers in his Department during that period represented the total cost of each flight.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The figures provided outline the net cost for the Ministry of Defence of the RAF flight and are a breakdown for each passenger relating to personnel costs and allowances.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 13 March to Question 16658 on Sloane Helicopters: Contracts, whether the value of the contract extension will be disclosed alongside the publication of the new Contract Award notice.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
I would be content to make the information available following the publication of the new contract award.
More broadly, I would note that such transport arrangements are long-standing and have operated under successive Governments of all political colours.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 28 February to Question 14510 on Sloane Helicopters: Contracts, whether he will be able to publish the figure requested in that question once the deadline for bids for the new Rotary Wing Command Support Air Transport Helicopter Service contract (procurement reference 412734/1312240) has passed on 15 March 2024.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
Releasing the contract extension value before the Contract Award for the future Rotary Wing Command Support Air Transport Helicopter Service could prejudice my department and our industry partner's commercial interests in the competition. The value of both the future contract and the current extension will remain commercially sensitive until 30 days after the Contract Award. At that point the final Contract Award Notice will be made available on Contracts Finder as part of standard practice.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 4 December 2023 to Question 4104 on Sloane Helicopters: Contracts, what is the value of the contract extension agreed between his Department and Sloane Helicopters to cover the period from the expiry of the previous Rotary Wing Command Support Air Transport Helicopter Service contract on 30 September 2023 and the start of the new contract with procurement reference 412734/1312240 on 1 December 2024.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
To release the value of this contract extension could prejudice my Department's and our commercial partner's commercial interests for a future competition for the Rotary Wing Command Support Air Transport Helicopter Service contract. The value of the contract let under the future competition will be published as part of the Contract Award Notice which will be available on Contracts Finder.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many purchases with a value of less than £500 were made against his Department’s budget using a Government procurement card (a) in calendar year 2022 and (b) from 1 January to 30 November 2023; and what was the total cost of those purchases.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
In Calendar Year 2022 the Department recorded 175,053 transactions with a value of less than £500 and the total cost of these purchases has been calculated at £20,035,940.81.
Between 1 January 2023 and 30 November 2023 the Department recorded 167,839 transactions with a value of less than £500 and the total cost of these purchases has been calculated at £16,168,468.94.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many government procurement cards were held by people to make purchases against his Department’s budget as of (a) 31 December 2022, (b) 31 March 2023 and (c) 31 December 2023.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
For each of the dates requested, the number of cards held across the Ministry of Defence are as follows:
As of Date | Number Held |
31 December 2022 | 9,134 |
31 March 2023 | 9.498 |
31 December 2023 | 8.844 |
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, when he plans to publish his Department's gender pay gap report for 2023.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
There are two constituent components to Defence Gender Pay Gap Reporting as we monitor both the Ministry of Defence (MOD) Civilian workforce and the Armed Forces. We are currently aiming to publish the MOD Civilian Gender Pay Gap Report by 15th February 2024. We were unable to meet the cross-government publication date of 23 Nov 23 due to additional time needed to resolve some data discrepancies. Cabinet Office has agreed to MOD’s delayed publication.
The UK Armed Forces Gender Pay Gap Report is not required to align with the cross-government publication date for the civilian population, and we are currently analysing data within the Armed Forces Continuous Working Patterns Survey to achieve publication by 7 March 2024.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to Page 54 of his Department's annual report and accounts for 2022/23, HC1468, published on 25 July 2023, what the distance travelled on domestic flights was that resulted in the emission totals of (a) 2,460 tCO2e in 2021/22, and (b) 4,070 tCO2e in 2022/23.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
During Financial Year (FY) 2021-22 the distance travelled on domestic flights was 19,123,070 km, and in FY 2022-23 the distance travelled on domestic flights was 31,311,370 km.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, who was on board the return flight by Sloane Helicopters call-sign G-MAOL from RAF Northolt to MOD Boscombe on 30 November 2023, flight reference KRF17.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
It has been the practice of successive Administrations not to publish granular information relating to the official movements of protected individuals, and/or official travel by any individual to military or secure locations.