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Defence Procurement

The hon. Gentleman will be relieved to hear that we are in not government, but we are not in possession of all the figures, as has been said many times today. [Interruption.] Members may groan, but the Ministry of Defence figures are opaque so it is very difficult to tell exactly where the money is going at any particular time. The most important thing is that we recognise that the Royal United Services Institute estimates that the defence budget is underfunded by £15 billion if it is to match the commitments set out by the former Prime Minister. On many occasions I have spoken about the overstretch of our armed forces through commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan. Harmony guidelines are regularly breached for a large proportion of our soldiers. That is exacerbated by poor retention levels and often increases reliance on our reserves. It is a vicious cycle—fewer troops leads to over-use of those troops, which leads to a greater exodus, which leads to a greater reliance on ever-decreasing numbers. Defence planning assumptions have been breached for the past seven years at least. The over-commitment and under-resourcing has a dramatic effect on equipment as well. Little funding for new equipment results in greater reliance on old equipment, which is over-used in Iraq and Afghanistan. Heat and over-use leads to more breakdown, which leads to greater reliance on a smaller pool of equipment, and so on. Although additional funding for urgent operational requirements is welcome, especially when it comes directly from the Treasury, the costs of maintaining that equipment in future years will have to be borne by the MOD budget, putting even more pressure on an already tight budget. Constantly shifting equipment programmes to the right and far into the distance is no longer sustainable, especially if the UK is to match the aspirations set out by the former Prime Minister in Plymouth. UK defence spending compares well with that of our European partners, but it still does not match the commitments required by our foreign policy. RUSI estimates that current spending should increase from 2 per cent. of gross domestic product to 2. 5 per cent. of GDP to meet the former Prime Minister's objectives. I do not recall hearing the present Prime Minister objecting to the former Prime Minister's remarks in Plymouth. In fact, I remember him endorsing those remarks. If the opposite is the case, I should like to hear it. If not, I should like to see how the Government propose to fill the gap. I was surprised that during the Minister's opening remarks, there was not one mention of Trident. After all, earlier this year, the former Prime Minister at the time told us that"““we cannot put this decision off; we have to take it now.””—[Official Report, 14 March 2007; Vol. 458, c. 280.]" We were told earlier this year that this will be one of the UK's biggest construction projects, so why was no substantive mention made of it? Where is the report on the great progress that has been made on Trident since then? Why was it so urgent that we had to take the decision earlier this year?