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DEFENCE
Defence Procurement Contracts
Mr. Nigel Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what assessment he has made of the impact on north-west industry of the orders for (a) the Eurofighter, (b) Nimrod and (c) Hawk aircraft since 1992. [13269]
Mr. Arbuthnot: Work on the Eurofighter programme has an important and positive impact on industry in the north-west of England. Although detailed employed figures are not readily available specifically for the north-west, approximately 6,000 jobs in the UK are sustained by the Eurofighter development programme. We expect this to increase to some 14,000 in production. At this stage, the quadrinational Eurofighter programme is in the full development phase. We hope to be in a position, in conjunction with our partners, to move to the production investment and production phases of the programme in the very near future. Contractual negotiations are continuing.
The prime contract for Nimrod 2000 was placed with BAe in December 1996. Considerable high-quality engineering work will be undertaken at BAe Warton. A number of other British defence companies will also benefit from involvement in the programme. We expect that about 2,600 UK jobs will be sustained through the contract.
The last Hawk aircraft to be ordered for the Royal Air Force was in 1982. British Aerospace has been very successful in selling Hawk to a number of countries worldwide. These valuable overseas orders have resulted in a considerable amount of work and prosperity in the north-west, primarily at BAe Warton.
Mr. Llew Smith:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if Her Majesty's Government plan to advertise the tender contracts for the proposed new royal yacht in the Official Journal of the European Communities. [13399]
Mr. Arbuthnot:
The invitation to tender for the construction of the new royal yacht will be advertised in the MOD's "Contracts Bulletin" in the usual way.
Mr. Gordon Prentice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will place in the Library the inventory of the publicly owned contents of the royal yacht. [13777]
Mr. Soames:
Full details of the publicly owned items aboard Britannia are not currently available. An inventory to establish those items belonging to the royal household, the Royal Navy and the Ministry of Defence is currently under way, in preparation for Britannia's decommissioning in December this year.
Mr. John D. Taylor:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many part-time Army personnel were stationed in Northern Ireland in 1992; and how many are currently. [13665]
Mr. Soames:
There were 2,785 part-time members of the Royal Irish Regiment on 31 December 1992. The
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figure for December 1996, the last month for which we have complete figures, was 2,027
Mr. Gordon Prentice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to his answers of 23 January, Official Report, column 686, if he will list the (a) uncommitted and (b) unspent parts of the sum allocated to the Trident programme. [13646]
Mr. Arbuthnot:
A breakdown of the remaining expenditure on the Trident procurement programme is as follows:
| £ million | ||
|---|---|---|
| Uncommitted | Unspent commitment | |
| Submarine | 136 | 260 |
| Strategic weapon system | 303 | 154 |
| Tactical weapon system | 0 | 62 |
| Buildings/works | 7 | 1 |
| Dockyards | 256 | 2 |
| Warhead/miscellaneous-unallocated contingency | 161 | 71 |
| Totals | 863 | 550 |
Eurofighter
Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many Eurofighters each of the participating countries proposes to order; and what is the value of each order. [13650]
Mr. Arbuthnot: The UK's commitment will be 232 aircraft to replace the Tornado F3 and Jaguar. Our partners have declared their requirement to be: Germany--180, Italy--121, Spain--87. Contractual negotiations with companies in the four partner nations for the production investment-production and support phases of the programme continue.
Mr. Prentice: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what assessment he has made of the export potential of the Eurofighter; and what potential markets have been identified. [13656]
Mr. Arbuthnot: The prospects for export orders for Eurofighters appear to be excellent; several countries have already expressed interest. For reasons of commercial confidentiality, it would be inappropriate at this stage to identify potential customers and I am therefore withholding this information under exemption 7 of the code of practice on access to government information.
Army Recruitment
Mr. Llwyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what languages, apart from English, are used in connection with publicity material for recruitment to the armed forces; and if he will make a statement. [13865]
Mr. Soames: Apart from English, recruiting publicity material is printed in Bengali, Gujerati, Hindi, Punjabi, Urdu and Welsh.
Dr. David Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what is the current officer recruiting deficit expressed as a percentage. [13498]
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Mr. Soames: The armed forces are currently 166 officers short of the financial year 1996-97 recruiting target; this represents a deficit of 10 per cent.
Dr. Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence when his Department estimates that the Army will reach its full manning requirement. [13496]
Mr. Soames: The Department is currently considering additional measures to further improve recruitment and retention and restore the Army to full manning over the next few years.
Food Supply Contract
Mr. Key: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence in what circumstances and in what ways the contract for supply of food for the armed forces announced on 28 January can be varied by (a) his Department and (b) the Booker Foodservice Group. [14116]
Mr. Soames: The food supply requirement for the armed forces is not static and can change sometimes at short notice, in both volume and location. The contractor will be required to respond effectively to any such changes, including supplies needed for operations and exercises. The contract could therefore be varied by the Department to take account of changes in the contracted requirement. It could also be varied by mutual agreement to reflect economies or efficiencies in operation identified by either party if considered to be in the Department's interest.
Mr. Key: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what external or consultancy advice was used to evaluate tenders received in the competition for the follow-on contract for the supply of food to the armed forces announced on 28 January. [14120]
Mr. Soames: Four commercial advisers, all senior managers from blue chip companies in the food industry, together with a consultant, were appointed to provide expert advice and independent scrutiny of the evaluation process.
Mr. Key: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will place in the Library the tender document for the contract to supply food for the armed forces announced on 28 January. [14115]
Mr. Soames: The tender document contains commercially sensitive information and cannot be made available.
Mr. Key: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list the criteria against which bids for the contract to supply food to the armed forces announced on 28 January were judged. [14119]
Mr. Soames: Tenders were subject to thorough commercial and technical evaluation. The commercial factors assessed included price, buying policy and strategy, efficiency and improvement proposals and contract conditions, as well as company financial status. The technical factors evaluated included the proposals on management, phase-in, quality, commodities, ordering and distribution, and information technology as well as the response to meet overseas requirements and the need
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of exercises, operations and war. The competitors were briefed on the evaluation criteria at the outset of the competition.
Mr. Key: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence in what respects the contract with Booker Foodservice Group for the supply of food to the armed forces reflects the recommendations of the National Audit Office report "Ministry of Defence: Supply of Food to the Armed Forces," HC 66 of Session 1996-97. [14127]
Mr. Soames: The lessons learned from the first contract identified in the National Audit Office report have been taken fully into account.
Mr. Key: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what is the value of the contract for supply of food for the armed services announced on 28 January; and on what date the first and subsequent payments will be made. [14117]
Mr. Soames: The estimated value of the contract will be in excess of £400 million over five years. Payments for the cost of food supplied will be paid fortnightly in arrears against verified receipts. Legitimate costs incurred by Booker Foodservice Group before the start of operations in October will be paid against agreed and verifiable milestones. The date of the first payment has not yet been established.
Mr. Key: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list those parties that submitted tenders in respect of the contract for the supply of food for the armed forces announced on 28 January, indicating on what date each tender was received; and when was the closing date for the receipt of tenders. [14121]
Mr. Soames: Tenders were received from Booker Foodservice Group Ltd. and NAAFI. Both tenders were received on the closing date of 25 July 1996.
Mr. Key: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence for what reasons the follow-on contract for supply of food to the armed services announced on 28 January will run for five years in place of the current three-year contract. [14118]
Mr. Soames: The current food supply contract was awarded to NAAFI without competition in 1994 because, at that time, the requirement could not be adequately defined and was expected to change significantly as a result of "Options for Change" and the defence cost studies. It was considered that NAAFI, which already provided 50 per cent. of the food, was best placed to meet the task and that three years was the minimum time required to establish a service from which a competition for a follow-on contract could be devised. The new contract will be for a five-year period, which is considered the most appropriate to secure the best value for money.
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