RAF Red Arrows

Lord Touhig Excerpts

Tuesday 13th September 2016 Lords Chamber

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, that will emerge when the decision on their runway capacity is announced.

[Lord Touhig (Lab)]

My Lords, over more than 50 years the Red Arrows have flown almost 5,000 displays around the world. They have been used to recruit to our Armed Forces and they have acted as ambassadors for Britain. I read the statement from the Minister’s department about why it was thought that the traditional high-speed display was not appropriate at Farnborough and they performed a flypast instead. In response to an earlier question, the Minister said that in future we will look at these displays on a case-by-case basis. I hope we will because in the last figure I have, the cost of the display team is £6.1 million. That is a lot of money to spend on an occasional flypast.

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, the off-the-cuff figure for the cost of the Red Arrows in my brief is £9.7 million but there is a charge-out to event organisers in some cases. I will come back to the noble Lord on the precise figure.