MINISTRY OF DEFENCE POLICY ON THE UPKEEP OF DRILL HALLS

 

1. The UK Volunteer Estate (VE) comprises assets not on the MOD regular estate utilised by the Reserve and Cadet organisations. These comprise the Territorial Army, Royal Naval Reserve and Royal Marines Reserve and the Royal Auxiliary Air Force (RAuxAF) and facilities used by the MOD sponsored youth organisations, Army Cadet Force, the Air Training Corps and the Combined Cadet Force. The VE is spread throughout the UK, its concentration matching population density and is maintained by 13 Reserve Forces' and Cadets' Associations (RFCAs) who receive funding for estate work through Defence Estates (DE) and from the three Services.

 

2. From 1 April 2007, DE - the MOD organisation responsible for the defence estate - became responsible for funding the maintenance of the VE to meet the operational requirements of the three Services (the customers), under a new management model similar to the Regional Prime Contracts (RPCs), but continuing to use the RFCAs to deliver estate services to the VE. DE is working with the Council of RFCAs and individual associations to bring about the necessary changes which will retain their flexibility and empowerment whilst establishing an appropriate level of assurance for DE. The benefits of the changes are: to achieve stable funding for the VE; allow for a greater degree of planning by the RFCAs; a greater consistency in the service Customers receive; and enable the VE to be managed on a national basis so that resources go to areas of greatest need.

 

3. As part of the project to implement this new management model, a condition survey was undertaken last year to identify the current condition of the VE. This allows us to identify where particular assets on the VE are at the condition required by the occupiers to deliver operational outputs. Where they are not, maintenance and investment is carried out as appropriate. The condition survey uses a robust methodology that has been adopted for the whole of the MOD estate. This was undertaken by independent surveyors appointed through the Council of RFCAs, and they were also required to identify specific instances of statutory non-compliance, Health and Safety issues and critical failures.

 

4. The decisions taken on the upkeep and/or maintenance of a drill hall, TA Centre or Cadet building are driven by a number of factors, including:

 

· statutory and Health & Safety related works which are undertaken with expediency to ensure both the safety of the users of the asset and statutory compliance.

 

· the maintenance requirements for the range of assets contained in the VE are identified in the customer agreed Output Specification. Drill halls form one of a range of asset types identified as making up the VE. The Services have agreed an importance category between 1 and 5 (where 1 is the most important and 5 the least important) for each asset type. Drill halls were identified as having an asset importance of 2. This tag drives the prioritisation of both planned and reactive maintenance delivery and ensures that a comparable and consistent level of maintenance is delivered to assets of the same category across the VE.

 

5. The Services will also determine the requirement for maintenance against the long term requirement for the asset and the appropriateness of the asset for the task it is being utilised for. Where the Services identify only a short term requirement for an asset, the level of maintenance (other than Statutory and Health & Safety) undertaken to that asset may be reduced with their agreement with the Customer. Additionally, where assets are identified as being inappropriate for the function being undertaken, having excessive maintenance costs and/or are beyond economic repair, RFCAs are required to investigate alternative more cost effective means to deliver the requirement.