Asked by: James MacCleary (Liberal Democrat - Lewes)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many major procurement programmes have capability gaps due to the speed of their delivery.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Ministry of Defence takes a rigorous approach to manage risks arising from capability gaps, ensuring that we are able to deliver defence's strategic and operational tasks. It is important to guard against the threat of adversary data aggregation of gaps in UK military capability, so it would be inappropriate to comment further.
Asked by: James MacCleary (Liberal Democrat - Lewes)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, which major defence programmes currently lack a full-time Senior Responsible Owner.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The time commitment required from a Senior Responsible Owner (SRO) depends on the scope, scale and complexity of the project. We follow National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA) guidance and have full-time SROs on the most challenging projects.
In agreement with NISTA, we have identified the 15 most challenging of our Government Major Projects Portfolio (GMPP) projects that require a full time SRO.
The remaining 33 projects currently in the GMPP, are led by SROs who may lead more than one project or have additional responsibilities.
The role of the SRO - whether civilian or military – is to provide leadership, while day to day management of programmes is the responsibility of the Programme Director.
Asked by: James MacCleary (Liberal Democrat - Lewes)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the annual cost was of the (i) HM Forces Railcard and (ii) Veterans Railcard in 2024.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department for Transport does not hold this information. The HM Forces and Veterans Railcards are managed by the Rail Delivery Group.
Asked by: James MacCleary (Liberal Democrat - Lewes)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much his Department has spent on external consultants supporting the A-7 Wedgetail programme since its inception.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
To date, external consultancy spend on E-7 Wedgetail is £1.27 million and was spent in the 2017-18 financial year.
Asked by: James MacCleary (Liberal Democrat - Lewes)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many consultancy contracts with his Department have overrun or required extensions within the last five years.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
I will write to the hon. Member and a copy of this letter will be placed in the Library of The House.
Asked by: James MacCleary (Liberal Democrat - Lewes)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many consultancy contracts are currently in place in relation to major air capability programmes.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
I will write to the hon. Member and a copy of this letter will be placed in the Library of The House.
Asked by: James MacCleary (Liberal Democrat - Lewes)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether his Department has established an oversight mechanism to monitor delivery of the Atherton Report recommendations.
Answered by Louise Sandher-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
Of the House of Commons Defence Committee's report ‘Protecting those who protect us: Women in the Armed Forces from Recruitment to Civilian Life’, Defence has accepted 33 recommendations, partially accepted a further four recommendations and noted 13 points which were conclusions rather than recommendations. Three of the Committee’s recommendations were not implemented; these related to timelines for Service Complaints appeals and civilian jurisdiction.
All the actions Defence committed to have been delivered and are being evaluated. Most recently in November, Defence published the results of the first tri-Service survey to fully understand the experiences of personnel and perceptions of sexualised behaviours, including harassment, in the Armed Forces. Work continues to improve Service life for women in the Armed Forces beyond the Atherton Report. New initiatives are being developed to better prepare female Service personnel for arduous training roles as well as bringing a gender perspective to the future development of existing equipment and uniform. We also continue to drive for continuous improvement in addressing unacceptable behaviours, including an ongoing review of our Zero Tolerance policies and establishing a new Tri-Service Unit for handling of serious complaints independent of the military chain of command.
Asked by: James MacCleary (Liberal Democrat - Lewes)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many RAF personnel are assigned to support VIP fleet operations.
Answered by Louise Sandher-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
There are eight personnel in the Command Support Air Transport (CSAT) tasking team, responsible for tasking the Envoy and Voyager aircraft in support of Op VESPINA (Flights for Head of State or Head of Government on State business only).
CSAT operations are further supported by a wide network of personnel who plan, engineer, fly, cost and enable these operations. This includes, 32 (The Royal) Squadron, which operates the Envoy; 10 and 101 Squadrons, which operate Voyager during Op VESPINA when not performing its primary air-to-air refuelling role.
Asked by: James MacCleary (Liberal Democrat - Lewes)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of inflation on capital procurement programmes over the last five years.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Ministry of Defence prepares its cost forecasts with inflation estimates included. However, the higher levels of inflation experienced following Covid-19 and the start of Russia's war against Ukraine has increased costs to Defence, as inflation increased above the levels anticipated by previous forecasts.
In 2022, under the last Government, the Department published an evidence paper on the 'Drivers of Defence Cost Inflation', which is available online.
Asked by: James MacCleary (Liberal Democrat - Lewes)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the average tenure has been for Senior Responsible Owners of major procurement programmes since 2015.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The average time served in post as a Senior Responsible Owner for defence major programmes listed on the Government Major Projects Portfolio (GMPP) for each Financial Year from 1 April 2015 is:
Financial Year | Average Time in Post (Years) |
2015/2016 | 0.5 |
2016/2017 | 1.3 |
2017/2018 | 1.7 |
2018/2019 | 1.8 |
2019/2020 | 1.3 |
2020/2021 | 1.9 |
2021/2022 | 1.4 |
2022/2023 | 1.7 |
2023/2024 | 1.6 |
2024/2025 | 2.1 |
The average tenure is impacted by churn in the GMPP as new programmes join and those in the final stages of delivery leave.
The department recognises the importance of continuity in programme leadership and is working to improve this.