Armoured Vehicles (Hansard, 19 September 2003)

§ Mr. Gerald Howarth
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the value to the Ministry of Defence is of the planned sales of armoured land rovers; how many have been sold in the past two years; and how many are up for sale. [130791]

§ Mr. Ingram
The financial returns to the Ministry of Defence for the planned sale of armoured land rovers is very much dependent on the vehicles' condition and the
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requirements of the market and therefore cannot be accurately determined. However, the average return to the MOD for each of those vehicles already sold is approximately £1,500, following completion of removal of armour and repair/making good of any damage resulting from the removal process. To date some 26 vehicles have been sold in the past two years and eight scrapped due to poor condition. There remain 82 vehicles that could be sold.

§ Mr. Gerald Howarth
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of the procurement process for the(a) TRACER and (b) MRAV armoured vehicle programmes. [130622]

§ Mr. Ingram
Both the Tactical Reconnaissance Armoured Combat Equipment (TRACER) and Multi Role Armoured Vehicle (MRAV) programmes were subject to our normal procurement processes, which are kept under regular review.
The joint United Kingdom/United States decision to terminate the collaborative TRACER programme came at the end of its Assessment Phase and took account both of an emerging, wider requirement for deployable. rapid effect forces, and the potential cost of the TRACER solution. I am satisfied, therefore, that this phase of the procurement process fulfilled its purpose, namely to take account of such factors before deciding whether to commit to a major investment decision.
On MRAV, I refer the hon. Member to the statement I made on 17 July 2003, Official Report, column 71WS, about the UK's decision to withdraw from this tri-national programme, which is managed by the Organisation for Joint Armaments Cooperation (OCCAR) on behalf of the UK, Germany and the Netherlands. Officials intend to conduct a 'Post Project Evaluation' study once the United Kingdom has completed its withdrawal from the programme.