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Defence in the World

Absolutely, partly because I, like the hon. Gentleman, have had military experience. We know, to use a good old-fashioned military term, that it is bull, and we are going to get a lot more of it. The Minister is told that the turnaround time for the Harrier at Cottesmore has been reduced from 200 days to 45 days. So he writes to everybody in good faith—he is a good friend of mine who is absolutely committed to our front-line forces—saying that this is working wonderfully. What he does not say, possibly because he is not aware of it, is that it is achieved by a few commanders on the front-line station telling people to work seven days a week on double shifts for a few weeks, so two shifts of six work endless hours with no breaks because under Queen’s regulations they are obliged to do so. The turnaround time of 60 days at DARA St. Athan would be achieved by six workers in a team working a 37-hour week on a single shift. I am not reassured by the Ministry’s response to recommendation 38, and I am certainly not reassured by its other responses. On recommendation 37, it says:"““The Department acknowledges the Committee’s recommendation””—" that is, about the adverse impact on operational effectiveness—but"““the high standards set by RAF tradesmen at both RAF Marham and those transferring in from RAF Lossiemouth will remain subject to exacting Quality control measures. As part of the . . . DLO transformation process, the Tornado project team is trying to agree a series of partnered support solutions with two prime contractors””." Surprise, surprise—one of the prime contractors, BAE Systems, will move in, without any competition, with a joint upgrade and maintenance programme to do the work of the RAF and oversee the work that is carried out. This is a dangerous step, and I would prefer that the Government did not take it. They should sit back, take a deep breath, and carefully and independently review what they have already done before taking this huge step into the unknown. We owe that to our brave servicemen and women in Her Majesty’s Royal Air Force. The Secretary of State said—I agree with him 100 per cent., in response to my hon. Friend the Member for Bridgend (Mrs. Moon)—that when we consider such matters our prime consideration is to ensure that our military personnel have the equipment that they want, when they want it, in the place they want it: in other words, that they can depend on those support facilities at a cost that is acceptable to the British taxpayer. I have no doubt that applying the criteria of military importance and value for money will expose the policy to be the utter nonsense that it is. I am afraid that waiting five years to see the effect of the decision will mean that it is too late to do anything about it. I am a friend of the Government, and an ardent supporter of their defence policy. They started very well in respect of logistical support for front-line troops, and offered what might be called a new Labour interpretation of the ““Frontline First”” approach. I support them entirely, but hope that they will think again about this matter; otherwise, they could undermine the RAF’s future capability.