§ Mr. Ian BruceTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what is the planned spending on providing, equipping and staffing the new Ministry of Defence building at Abbey Wood; how much has already been spent; and how many staff could be accommodated at Abbey Wood.
§ Mr. AitkenThe estimated works cost of the Abbey Wood development, inclusive of site acquisition, construction, fitting out, professional works management fees and VAT is £254.136 million at 1993 prices with an additional £93 million for non-works elements, inclusive of staff relocation and removaUrecommissioning of IT systems existing at the time of collocation. The construction programme continues to proceed within budget and a total of £72.138 million, at the same price base, has been approved for payment to date. As a result of the use of more stringent space standards and work undertaken in support of the defence costs study, it is anticipated that a maximum of some 5,700 personnel could be accommodated within the existing scheme. The estimate for the non-works costs will be revisited in the light of the recently announced decisions resulting from the defence costs study.