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3.55 pm

Mr. David Kidney (Stafford): It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for North Wiltshire (Mr. Gray). I enjoyed his speech until he came to his final remarks. I thought that it was a very welcome development that

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Parliament had the final say on the biggest decision that we can take, which is to start a war. However, there will be emergencies when actions sometimes must be taken before Parliament has all the facts, can debate the issue and make a decision. I also welcome what he said about the Territorial Army and reservists, especially the point about the importance of responsible employers ensuring that the reservists have time off to do the important work that they hold themselves ready to do for this country.

I congratulate the hon. Member for South-East Cornwall (Mr. Breed) on his new responsibilities and I wish him well with his brief for the Liberal Democrats.

My constituency has hosted RAF Stafford for more than 60 years, and today its role is to provide combat support services and single service storage and distribution. I therefore thought that I would confine my comments to the policy for defence logistics. A good place to begin is Operation Saif Sareea 2, which took place in September 2000 when United Kingdom and Omani forces came together on an exercise. The UK tested our ability to conduct expeditionary warfare and provide support for expeditionary forces. The National Audit Office gave a reasonably positive assessment of that exercise in July 2002. It concluded that

"logistic support was demonstrated with personnel and equipment being successfully moved to, from, and around a large theatre of operations."

Beyond the headlines, there are issues of concern, and I shall pick out two that are relevant to this debate. The first is the issue of strategic lift. Although dedicated strategic lift assets are probably a matter for next week's debate, the policy relies on access to civilian planes in so far as the Ministry insists on using them for part of its strategic lift capacity. As the National Audit Office said, if we rely on civilian planes, it is absolutely essential that we have guaranteed access to sufficient civilian strategic lift resources in a crisis. I endorse that conclusion.

In relation to the Saif Sareea exercises, the National Audit Office drew attention to the unreliability of asset-tracking systems and pointed out that there were periods when it was not possible to track items sent from the United Kingdom to the exercise theatre. The Public Accounts Committee reiterated those observations and also commented on communications, which again are more a matter for next week's debate.

The conflict in Iraq began with a build-up of our forces mostly in Kuwait and it was then followed by military action. From a logistics point of view, I want to deal with the reports of shortages of supplies that the hon. Member for North Essex (Mr. Jenkin) picked up. I have followed the story and it is my experience that many of the reports were exaggerated. In fact, some of them were unfair to the people who delivered supplies to the front. However, there are points to address.

Lord Bach, who is Minister for Defence Procurement in the other place, talked about that subject when he addressed the Royal United Services Institute for Defence Studies at the end of July. He said:

"In a logistics exercise of this size, there were bound to be some problems. Most of these were addressed quickly. Others proved more difficult to solve."

In his speech, he continued to talk about some of the difficulties and how they could be resolved. He mostly drew on a report that was published in July entitled

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"Operations in Iraq: First Reflections", so I shall move on to that report directly rather than quoting him second hand.

The report said:

"Initial reports suggest that our equipment and logistics support performed well overall, although improvements are required in respect of asset tracking and distribution within theatre."

It includes a comment that the Ministry of Defence is able to track assets that have been properly put together and sent to theatre but that we cannot check where they are when things are off and running.

The report made general conclusions that I shall draw to the attention of the House. We are endeavouring

"to integrate more closely the idea of single-Service supply chains",

yet the report confirms that we are still some way from completing that work. It drew the important conclusion that we must be careful about the balance of ready stocks that we hold and those that we source directly from industry, which especially relates to points made about boots and clothes. The message is not to be too seduced by the "just in time" philosophy of commerce in some of the situations that we face during warfare.

The report drew attention to the need for a

"common and robust tracking system to enable equipment and stocks to be tracked throughout the supply chain in fast-moving, complex operations."

The last conclusion to which I shall draw attention, which is relevant to human support for people doing the fighting, is the

"need to review the provision of Temporary Deployable Accommodation to ensure that accommodation and human support services are made available to our people, particularly in arduous locations."

Behind those recommendations, we must recognise the immense human effort involved in delivering logistic support to the front line. Given that RAF Stafford is a storage and distribution point, as is the Ministry of Defence's Army base at Donnington, I was able to see the work of the people at the Defence Storage and Distribution Agency, who are mainly civil servants, during Operation Telic. I saw their commitment and dedication and listened to their stories of 12-hour shifts, seven days a week. I saw them send away the items that formed part of the supply chain. Their dedication and commitment made the logistic side of Operation Telic a success. The telling statistic when one compares Operation Telic with Operation Desert Storm in 1991 is that we transported twice as much in half the time. The personnel who were involved in that tremendous achievement deserve a big "well done" from the House. The operation required the movement of 46,000 service personnel, ships, aircraft, armoured vehicles, support equipment, clothing, accommodation, medical equipment and food supplies over 5,500 km to the theatre of war.

News of progress on the Ministry of Defence's end to end review, which is one of many reviews that I want to mention in a moment, followed for the Defence Storage and Distribution Agency, although I hesitate to say that

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the review has ended—it will continue. As a first consideration of the review, my right hon. Friend the Minister of State said:

"The Ministry of Defence has recently completed a detailed review of the way in which we provide logistic support to land and air forces (including naval air and the royal marines)."

He said that the review was a fundamental and wide-ranging piece of work, examining the totality of our logistic support from industry to the front line, that the work was in progress, and that consultation with trade unions would take place at every step along the way. He said that a number of key changes were needed, which had been identified. He told the House in September that he had placed a summary of the conclusions of the initial report in the Library, where hon. Members have access to it.

I notice that the end to end review is one of many reviews of the supply chain currently taking place. I was told in the summer that 21 reviews were under way at the same time. There are two dangers associated with such activity. First, there is the effect on human beings. We all wonder about the need for change and worry about the uncertainty created by talk about the need for change. There is a danger that the morale and confidence of those doing the work might be affected by too many reviews at the same time.

Secondly, each review can be justified on its own merits. The people carrying out each review can justify the conclusions that they reach, but it is important to retain an overview of the total effect of all the reviews being completed together, to ensure that the strategic service is satisfactory and robust at the end of the process. However, I should not like my right hon. Friend to think that I have anything against the Ministry of Defence keeping a finger on the pulse of what is happening.

I recognise how quickly the strategy of warfare changes, not to mention the technological developments that take place. Together, those factors for ever change the requirements of our armed forces and our ability to conduct war, whether in our defence or in other people's countries. I recognise, therefore, the need for such reviews. I simply warn about the effects of too many reviews at the same time.

I shall say a little about RAF Stafford's present position. At least three of the current reviews have a bearing on its future. We have the airfield support services, the future defence supply chain initiative, and the air combat service support units. The most high profile part of the airfield support services review has already been mentioned in the debate—the future of the fire defence service, which has a presence at RAF Stafford.

The review of the future defence supply chain initiative has a bearing on all the civil servants who work in the storage and distribution service at RAF Stafford. The review of the air combat service support unit has a bearing on the uniformed personnel at RAF Stafford. To give the full picture, there are about 700 uniformed personnel and about 1,100 civil servants at RAF Stafford.

The trade unions nationally are concerned about the reviews relating to the present work carried out by the civil servants. They fear excessive privatisation and a loss of civil service jobs, a loss of the civil service ethos

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on which the forces can rely, and a loss of the ability of the supply chain to respond in an emergency, as the civil service has always done. It is appropriate for me to say to my right hon. Friend the Minister that the trade union campaign concerns me. I take an interest in what the trade unions say to me. My right hon. Friend needs to be able to meet their concerns in the outcome of the reviews that he announces to the House in due course.

Those who work at RAF Stafford, whether in uniform or as civil servants, do tremendous work for the armed forces generally. Not only I, but the whole community of the Stafford area believe that. We have very good relations between the civilians who live in the area, including those whose jobs are at RAF Stafford, and the uniformed personnel based there. Between us, we create a good relationship between civilians and the armed forces: that is perhaps reflected in Staffordshire's good armed forces recruitment record.

The combat support personnel at RAF Stafford are ready to be deployed anywhere in the world at any time. When they are required to go, they go: they are a very reliable part of the supply chain. The tactical supply wing should never be overlooked—its personnel provide the fuel for helicopters used in the activities of our armed forces, not only at the front line, but sometimes beyond it. I have seen images of the holes in the ground in which our personnel work in Afghanistan and Iraq as they keep our helicopters flying, whether on offensive operations, delivering supplies or taking the injured away from the front. They are an important part of the forces on every deployment. How many people know that for the past 30 years the tactical supply wing has worked continuously to supply fuel for helicopter operations in Northern Ireland?

Having been a regular visitor to the Defence Storage and Distribution Agency at Stafford, I would rank its civil servants with the best in the commercial sector. For example, nationwide storage and distribution for Argos is based in Stafford, and there is absolutely no difference between the quality and effectiveness of the two operations.

Despite all that, there is some concern about ongoing reviews that may affect RAF Stafford. In recent years—the hon. Member for North Wiltshire mentioned this—local councils have been consulted by the armed forces when decisions taken following such reviews may have an impact on the local community and economy. That is a good development. The new council that was elected in Stafford in May recently had such a consultation. Perhaps it took it the wrong way or did not understand the importance of an open exchange of views at an early stage, but it came away with the impression, which it then publicised to our community, that RAF Stafford is in danger of closing. The same review team conducted the review into the closure of RAF Lyneham that was mentioned by the hon. Gentleman. Will my right hon. Friend comment on that, especially in relation to the possible effect on the air combat service support units at RAF Stafford? I hope that he will say that the camp has a future.

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