Visits
12. Visits serve as a useful element in the work
of most select committees. For our Committee they have particular
value in two areas. First, they enable us to meet serving soldiers,
sailors and airmen of all ranks both in the UK and abroad, often
on operational duties. The opportunity to elicit the views and
opinions of Service men and women, and to experience for ourselves
the kinds of challenges they face, is of great value. In the absence
of trade unions or other organised representative bodies, this
provides us with our only means of access to this range of opinion.
Second, overseas visits in particular enable us to obtain detailed
information and a proper sense of the state of opinion amongst
the politicians, parliamentarians, officers and officials of our
Allies in NATO and our other international partners. Given the
inevitable international dimension of defence and security policy,
such contacts play a very important part in informing our inquiries.
Furthermore, we hope they represent our own parliamentary contribution
to the MoD's new mission of 'defence diplomacy'.[12]
13. The Committee made 18 visits over the course
of the Session, 12 within the UK (for a total cost of £8,616.35),
and six overseas (for a total cost of £69,049.35).[13]
UK VISITS
14. The Committee's visits within the UK were as
follows.
Figure 3: UK Visits
Date
|
Destination
|
Purpose
|
31 October 1997 |
Permanent Joint Headquarters, Chicksands
|
Exercise Purple Link
|
10 November 1997 |
HMS Argyll, Type 23 Frigate, Pool of London
|
Demonstration |
19 November 1997 |
Duke of York's Headquarters, London
|
SDR inquiry |
26 November 1997 |
Defence Evaluation and Research Agency, Farnborough
|
SDR inquiry |
3 February 1998 |
MoD Procurement Executive, Abbey Wood, Bristol
|
SDR inquiry |
10 February 1998 |
Defence Evaluation and Research Agency, Farnborough
|
DERA inquiry |
10 March 1998 |
British Aerospace plc, Warton
|
Eurofighter project
|
18-19 March 1998 |
Northern Ireland |
SDR inquiry |
30/31 March 1998 |
GEC Marine plc, Barrow-in-Furness
|
Shipbuilding |
20 May 1998 |
5 Airborne Brigade, Aldershot
|
SDR inquiry |
9 June 1998 |
Royal Marines, Devonport
|
SDR inquiry |
5 November 1998 |
RAF Kinloss |
Exercise Purple Sound
|
OVERSEAS VISITS
15. The Committee made two major and two smaller
visits overseas for which approval is given by the Liaison Committee.
In November 1997 we visited British Forces in Bosnia and representatives
of local and international bodies in Sarajevo. The outcome of
this visit was set out in some detail in our First Report.[14]
16. In February 1998 we visited Washington DC for
four days. The main itinerary of our visit is set out at Annex
C. The visit was directed at informing our inquiries on the SDR,
NATO enlargement and Gulf War illnesses. We also discussed procurement
and defence industry matters with a number of interlocutors.
17. We visited NATO HQ in January 1997. This visit
contributed to the evidence for our Third Report. In March 1998
we visited British Forces in Germany. An itinerary of this visit
is at Annex D.
18. A small delegation from the Committee visited
our counterparts in the Bundestag in October 1997 to discuss the
Eurofighter project. The Chairman attended a seminar on enlargement
of European organisations at the Assemblée Nationale in
a representative capacity in June 1998. Mr Michael Colvin attended
a WEU Symposium on procurement matters in Munich in October 1997,
also in a representative capacity.
12 Eighth Report, Session 1997-98, Strategic Defence
Review, HC 138, para 146 Back
13 For
further details see Sessional Returns, 1997-98, HC 142, pp 119-123 Back
14 First
Report, Session 1997-98, Peace Support Operations in Bosnia
and Herzegovina, HC 403 Back
|
