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Defence Training Review

I thank the Secretary of State for advance notice of his statement, and I join him in paying tribute to the three members of Her Majesty’s armed forces who lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan over the last few days. Yesterday, I attended a thanksgiving service for 16th Air Assault Brigade, which has recently returned from Afghanistan; the roll of honour ran into double figures. The decision is clearly good news for south Wales, but bad news for just about every other part of Britain where military training takes place. It is good news for companies that are thriving on the fruits of privatisation, but bad news for the dedicated, publicly employed training professionals who will either lose their jobs or have to leave the public sector. It is good news for the Ministry of Defence, because it can now offload the costly mega-million white elephant that was built in the wrong place for a purpose that is not wanted. This is yet another example of the Government’s fixation with privatisation— In the wider interests of Britain’s armed forces, is this a privatisation too far? Will the Minister say whether any other MOD privatisations are being considered?