Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the Prime Minister’s defence speech in Warsaw of 23 April 2024, from which (a) Departments, (b) arms length bodies and (c) other organisations the number of civil servants will be reduced to help fund the commitment to spend 2.5% of gross domestic product on defence by 2030.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Prime Minister’s announcement of longer term reductions in Civil Service numbers is a reiteration of the policy announced by the Chancellor in October 2023. The longer term reductions will build on the shorter term headcount cap put in place through to March 2025, and the detail of how individual organisations will be affected by the return to pre-pandemic numbers will form a key part of the next comprehensive spending review.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the Prime Minister’s defence speech in Warsaw of 23 April 2024, whether the commitment to spend 2.5% of gross domestic product on defence by 2030 has been incorporated into his Department's baseline budgets.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
We have made a commitment to steadily increase defence spending, reaching 2.5% of GDP in 2030. We have also set out how we are fully funding this increase in defence spending. We will set departmental budgets in the normal way at the next spending review.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the Prime Minister’s defence speech in Warsaw of 23 April 2024, by how much each Department's research and development budget will be reduced to help fund the commitment to spend 2.5% of gross domestic product on defence by 2030.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
We have committed to increase government R&D spending by £2 billion, from £20 billion in 2024-25 to £22 billion in the next Parliament.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many publicly accessible (a) swimming pools and (b) lidos have been opened in each year since 2010.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
A total of 537 pools and lidos have opened since 2010. This figure does not include education ownership facilities such as school swimming pools. The breakdown of openings since 2010 is as follows:
2010 - 4 lidos and 70 pools
2011 - 4 lidos and 46 pools
2012 - 4 lidos and 47 pools
2013 - 3 lidos and 32 pools
2014 - 1 lidos and 26 pools
2015 - 3 lidos and 61 pools
2016 - 3 lidos and 47 pools
2017 - 0 lidos and 22 pools
2018 - 2 lidos and 32 pools
2019 - 3 lidos and 29 pools
2020 - 0 lidos and 20 pools
2021 - 0 lidos and 27 pools
2022 - 2 lidos and 37 pools
2023 - 3 lidos and 9 pools
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many (a) officers and (b) ratings were employed by the Royal Fleet Auxiliary in each year since 2010.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
Below are the requested figures of RFA personnel from 2010, broken down into Total Number, Officer and Rating figures.
Table 1. Royal Fleet Auxiliary Total Strength by Officer and Rating, as at 1 January 2010 to 1 January 2024
Date | Total | Officers | Ratings |
01 / 01 / 2010 | 2315 | 813 | 1502 |
01 / 01 / 2011 | 2314 | 787 | 1527 |
01 / 01 / 2012 | 1959 | 697 | 1262 |
01 / 01 / 2013 | 1887 | 667 | 1220 |
01 / 01 / 2014 | 1821 | 640 | 1181 |
01 / 01 / 2015 | 1850 | 662 | 1188 |
01 / 01 / 2016 | 1923 | 731 | 1192 |
01 / 01 / 2017 | 1938 | 726 | 1212 |
01 / 01 / 2018 | 1916 | 711 | 1205 |
01 / 01 / 2019 | 1887 | 685 | 1202 |
01 / 01 / 2020 | 1826 | 646 | 1180 |
01 / 01 / 2021 | 1828 | 657 | 1171 |
01 / 01 / 2022 | 1782 | 656 | 1126 |
01 / 01 / 2023 | 1736 | 637 | 1099 |
01 / 01 / 2024 | 1669 | 623 | 1046 |
Figures pre-2015 have been included, but this legacy data was obtained through a different data source and via a different system to the one currently used by Navy Analysis. As such, caution should be exercised when comparing figures from these respective periods as they may not be directly comparable.