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Written Question
Armed Forces: Housing
Wednesday 13th March 2024

Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what lessons his Department has learned for the future provision of service accommodation from the Single Living Accommodation Modernisation project.

Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)

Lessons learnt from the Single Living Accommodation Modernisation project include that it provided value for money through standardisation of design, and economies of scale through a managed pipeline of projects.

The Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) is continuing to realise these benefits through our Single Living Accommodation Programmatic Approach.

Standard designs have been developed in consultation with the front-line commands and industry partners.

Design layouts have been amended to provide better functional spaces in bedrooms and common areas.

The design of building fabric and services has been improved to achieve through life Net Zero Carbon requirements.


Written Question
Warships: Decommissioning
Monday 5th February 2024

Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the planned out of service dates are for HMS (a) Bulwark and (b) Albion; and whether it is his Department's policy to ensure both vessels remain operational up to that date.

Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)

It remains the case that no final decisions have been made regarding the future of HMS ALBION and HMS BULWARK. On current plans, both platforms will retire from service by the end of 2034 as originally scheduled.


Written Question
Ukraine: Armed Conflict
Tuesday 24th October 2023

Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the military lessons to be learned from the conflict in Ukraine.

Answered by James Heappey

The Russia Ukraine Insights Hub identified insights at the strategic and operational level for Defence drawn from the UK's response to the war in Ukraine. These insights have informed subsequent Defence decision making. In addition to strategic insights, the single Services continue to identify lessons pertinent to their domains.


Written Question
Defence: Buildings
Tuesday 3rd October 2023

Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment his Department made of the potential prevalence of RAAC in buildings (a) owned and (b) occupied by (i) military and (ii) other departmental staff.

Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)

For now, the focus is on bringing together the information we hold about the Government estate into one place. This work is being coordinated by the Office for Government Property.

Surveys are currently being conducted to identify buildings which may have been constructed with RAAC on Ministry of Defence (MOD) land.

We take safety extremely seriously and, based on our current information, RAAC has not traditionally been used by the MOD in the construction of domestic structure, and it is therefore highly unlikely that any Service Family Accommodation is affected. The majority of Single Living Accommodation was not constructed during the review period.


Written Question
Armed Forces: Motor Vehicles
Wednesday 22nd March 2023

Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many vehicles there are in his Department's white fleet (a) in total and (b) by individual service; and how many of the those vehicles are electric or hybrid.

Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice

The majority Ministry of Defence’s white fleet are leased through the Phoenix II Contract. There are a total of 15,422 vehicles leased under this contract. Of these, 728 are electric vehicles and 1,331 are hybrid vehicles. The table below sets out the numbers by Defence Organisation or Top Level Budget Holder (as of 15 March 2023):

Total Phoenix II Leased Vehicles

Air

3,166

Army

7,530

DE&S

214

DIO

520

DNO

10

DSA

20

HO

1

MDP

536

Navy

2,213

UKSC

1,212

Total

15,422


Written Question
Defence: Procurement
Monday 13th March 2023

Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

What steps he is taking to tackle supply chain constraints in defence procurement.

Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice

The Ministry of Defence takes the health and resilience of our supply chains seriously. The department has invested in a department-wide supply chain mapping programme, sharing intelligence and best practice on common critical supply chains and materials across Government and internationally.


Written Question
Antitank Missiles: Procurement
Thursday 12th January 2023

Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking to help ensure that NLAW anti-tank missile stocks will be replenished in early 2023.

Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice

To replenish the Next Generation Light Anti-Tank Weapon (NLAW) systems granted to Ukraine, the Ministry of Defence (MOD) secured around 500 units which will be delivered to the UK in 2023. The MOD has subsequently placed a separate contract for several thousand units to be delivered to the UK between 2024-2026.


Written Question
Fleet Solid Support Ships: Contracts
Monday 21st November 2022

Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the Written Statement of 16 November, HCWS369, on Shipbuilding Update, who the prime contractor for the Fleet Solid Support Ships will be; and what estimate he has made of the balance of work between the shipyards involved.

Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice

Team Resolute, a team consisting of Harland & Wolff, BMT and Navantia UK has been announced as the Preferred Bidder to build the Fleet Solid Support ships. Navantia UK, a UK registered company, will hold the contract as prime contractor.

The majority of the shipbuild will take place in the UK. The precise balance of work between each individual yard is a matter for Harland & Wolff.

No workers are currently employed in building the Fleet Solid Support ships by Harland & Wolff at any of its sites. No contract has yet been signed for the ships. Harland & Wolff has indicated that it expects the workforce employed to build the ships to grow by around 1,200.

The number of people employed by BMT in the competition for the Fleet Solid Support ships is purely a matter for the company. BMT has indicated that it expects its workforce engaged to deliver the Fleet Solid Support ships to grow to around 120.

The number of jobs sustained in Spain to deliver the Fleet Solid Support ships is a matter for the contractor concerned but it will be fewer than the number of jobs sustained and created in the UK.

The transfer of technology and skills from Navantia to the UK shipbuilding industry that the Fleet Solid Support ship programme will facilitate includes provision for a team of Spanish shipbuilding experts to be resident within Harland & Wolff in order to upskill local staff to deliver the construction in the UK and ensure build productivity and quality levels are met.


Speech in Commons Chamber - Mon 07 Nov 2022
Oral Answers to Questions

Speech Link

View all John Spellar (Lab - Warley) contributions to the debate on: Oral Answers to Questions

Speech in Commons Chamber - Thu 20 Oct 2022
Ukraine Update

Speech Link

View all John Spellar (Lab - Warley) contributions to the debate on: Ukraine Update