HC Deb 25 January 1977 vol 924 cc1149-50
1. Miss Joan Lestor

asked the Secretary of State for Defence if he will issue a detailed statement explaining the savings on the defence budget envisaged as a result of the proposals concerning the Admiralty Compass Observatory in Slough.

The Minister of State, Ministry of Defence (Dr. John Gilbert)

We shall be giving the staff and trade union sides of the Whitley Council our latest estimates of these savings as part of the consultation process.

Miss Lestor

I thank my hon. Friend for the careful attention that he has given to me on behalf of my constituents in relation to the closure of this establishment in the Beaconsfield division. Does he agree, first, that it would appear that the consultative document that was issued about this establishment was not consultative, in that the decision had already been taken and, secondly, that the absence of any financial statement about the savings supposed to take place from what was to happen to the Admiralty Compass Observatory led some people to believe that transferring the work to private industry was not a defence cut at all?

Dr. Gilbert

I am obliged to my hon. Friend for her kind remarks. The first part of her question put the position fairly, and I would not dissent from it. We think that it is sensible to wait until we have the revised figures, which we hope to have some time next month, before publishing them.

Mr. Ronald Bell

Will the Minister of State, by the time that I see him at 2.30 p.m. tomorrow, have these or the provisional figures about this observatory in my constituency? It will be difficult for me even to formulate the representations which I wish to formulate unless I know how the Ministry of Defence thinks that it will save money by switching orders from its own establishment to outside industry.

Dr. Gilbert

The cut-back is related to the requirement imposed on the Ministry of Defence to reduce its total number of employees. Certain painful decisions had to be taken, some of them at fairly short notice. I shall endeavour to be as helpful as I can when the hon. and learned Gentleman comes to see me tomorrow, but I cannot tell him, as I have just said to my hon. Friend the Member for Eton and Slough (Miss Lestor), what the up-to-date figures will be.

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