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.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the average amount of time is that an (a) officer and (b) rating serves in the Royal Navy.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
Making the Royal Navy (RN) an attractive and rewarding employer remains of paramount importance. Promoting retention efforts to extend the length of service of our sailors enables the RN to retain its skilled personnel, whose experience, and tradecraft are essential to the organisation.
The table below provides the average length of service on exit by trained RN Personnel (including Royal Marines) between 1 January 2017 and 31 December 2023.
Rank | Mean | Median |
Rating | 12 years 2 months | 8 years 7 months |
Officer | 21 years 0 months | 20 years 3 months |
Average length of service has been calculated by the length of current service, against the difference between the sailor’s joining and exit dates.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the membership is of his Department's investment approvals committee.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Investment Approvals Committee (IAC) is chaired by the Department’s Permanent Secretary but this role is normally delegated to Director General Finance, who is a member in their own right.
The other members of the Committee are: Deputy Chief of Defence Staff (Military Capability), Director General Commercial, Chief Scientific Advisor, Chief Information Officer, Director General Industry, Trade and Economic Security, and for in-committee cases only, one of the Department's Non-Executive Directors is engaged, as well as a Non-Executive Director drawn from the wider Senior Civil Service. Membership of the IAC is reviewed annually.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether his Department has taken delivery of new Javelin Lightweight Command Launch Units ordered in 2022.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Ministry of Defence has yet to take delivery of the Lightweight Command Launch Units for Javelin. Initial deliveries are expected in 2026.
Javelin F-model missiles, to replenish stocks Granted in Kind to Ukraine, are scheduled to be delivered in two batches; in 2027 and 2028.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, when he expects his Department to take delivery of new Javelin missiles.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Ministry of Defence has yet to take delivery of the Lightweight Command Launch Units for Javelin. Initial deliveries are expected in 2026.
Javelin F-model missiles, to replenish stocks Granted in Kind to Ukraine, are scheduled to be delivered in two batches; in 2027 and 2028.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether his Department plans to purchase a second Multi-Role Ocean Surveillance vessel.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Second Multi-role Ocean Surveillance Vessel is still in the concept phase. A programme and procurement strategy will be established once this has been completed.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to Defence Equipment & Support's article entitled £122m contract sees UK’s fleet of Airbus H145s expanded with six procured for overseas duties, published on 18 April 2024, whether the purchase of those Airbus H145s affects the number of helicopters to be purchased under the New Medium Helicopter programme.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
Whilst a decision was taken to treat the Brunei and Cyprus Rotary Wing Support requirement as separate to the other requirements to be met with the New Medium Helicopter (NMH), there has been no other change to the NMH scope as advertised in the Contract Notice.
The NMH competition needs to conclude before NMH aircraft numbers and delivery dates can be confirmed.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the delivery of the Future Commando Force.
Answered by Leo Docherty - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)
Commando Forces are deployed globally today, delivering disproportionate impact for a formation of their size, in the High North, Eastern Mediterranean and India-Asia Pacific regions as well as supporting rapid operational feedback and validating lessons from Ukraine.
The Department continually assesses resourcing of all operational capabilities. The Commando Force has delivered significant capability improvements at pace which have already been deployed on operations, with spiral development of key capabilities to retain their operational advantage going forward.
The Commando Force Programme is delivering a transformational change to amphibious operations through two investment increments over the next ten-years that offer political choice at competition, crisis and conflict levels.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much and what proportion of his Department's spending was with SMEs in each year since 2010.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The methodology used to calculate Government Departments’ spend with SMEs changed with effect from financial year (FY) 2013-14 to include sub-contracted spend. Since then the Cabinet Office has published all Departments’ direct and indirect spend with SMEs annually on the gov.uk website at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/central-government-spend-with-smes
Data from 2010-2013, which only covers direct spend that the MOD had with SMEs, is set out in the table below:
FY | Total Spend with SMEs | Proportion of MOD spending |
2010-11 | £0.69 billion | 3% |
2011-12 | £1 billion | 5% |
2012-13 | £1 billion | 5% |
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many swimming pools have been maintained by the (a) Royal Navy and (b) Royal Marines in each year since 2010.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Royal Navy maintains three swimming pools across its estate under the Future Maritime Support Programme. The remainder of the swimming pools across the Naval estate are maintained by the Defence Infrastructure Organisation.