HC Deb 21 June 1994 vol 245 cc109-11
5. Mr. McAllion

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many civilian employees there are in the Ministry of Defence.

Mr. Aitken

The total number of civilian personnel employed by the Ministry of Defence on 1 April 1994 was 143,700.

Mr. McAllion

Is the Minister aware of the concern among some MOD civilian employees at the proposal to establish a military home service engagement battalion, consisting of redundant ex-service men, paid off as part of the Government's defence cuts, which may lead to job losses among MOD guards? Will the Minister therefore give an absolute guarantee to the House that whatever the Blelloch report recommends, there will be no reduction in the staffing of the newly formed MOD guard service?

Mr. Aitken

All that I can tell the hon. Gentleman is that the matter is currently under study. It is not possible to give him an answer at this stage.

Mr. Wilkinson

How can the proposal to build new headquarters for the Procurement Executive at Abbey Wood, near Bristol, which will house hundreds of civilian personnel, be in tune with the "Front Line First" proposals that my hon. Friend is currently examining? Should not Her Majesty's forces now be able to procure direct from industry rather than having to deal through this expensive bureaucracy?

Mr. Aitken

We are certainly casting our eagle eye over any aspect of the MOD which could be described as excessively bureaucratic. The headquarters are also being considered as part of our defence costs study and I cannot anticipate my right hon. and learned Friend's statement at this stage.

Mr. Martlew

Will the Minister apologise for the deliberate leaking from his Department of the findings of the defence costs study, which is likely to mean the loss of 22,000 jobs, including many civilian jobs? Does he agree that those who work on military bases can have no faith in the Ministry of Defence's consultative procedures? For example, at RAF Carlisle recently, the trade unions put up a viable alternative to closing the base, but the Minister treated it with contempt and used it as an excuse to hold back a decision until after the European elections. Is not consultation a sham under this Government?

Mr. Aitken

That little diatribe was full of rubbish, as I have come to expect from the hon. Gentleman. First, if he thinks that Ministers deliberately leak the unwelcome information and speculation that appears in the press, he needs his head examined. It is the last thing that we would do. Secondly, he is ill-advised to cast doubt on the sincere and honourable consultation procedures, which we always implement in full and will continue to implement once the results of the defence costs study are announced. We will honour those consultation procedures. Finally, the hon. Gentleman is wrong about defects in the consultation procedure on the item that he mentioned.

Mr. David Shaw

Is my hon. Friend aware that there are a number of civilian employees at the Royal Marine school of music based in Deal? Is he also aware of the considerable unemployment in the Dover and Deal area and that one way to solve that problem would be to announce the setting up of a combined defence school of music based in Deal?

Mr. Aitken

I am certainly aware of the facts which my hon. Friend mentions, not least because I live in the Dover and Deal area and my constituency boundary is adjacent to that of my hon. Friend. We also share the same local newspaper, in which he is well recorded on those matters. I shall consider his ingenious suggestion, which is part of the defence costs study.

Mr. Trimble

Will the Minister consider the position of some civilian employees in Northern Ireland who were formerly with the Property Services Agency, but, because of the circumstances there, were recently transferred to the MOD? I refer particularly to some ladies who have given many years of loyal service in difficult circumstances. They are currently being declared redundant—not because the job has disappeared—and the readvertising of the post has been done in such a way as to deprive them of a real opportunity of applying. Will the Minister look into that injustice to remedy it?

Mr. Aitken

Yes, I will look into the point which the hon. Gentleman raises. I was unaware of it until now, but if he will be good enough to send me details, I will look sympathetically at the matter.