§ Mr. Trotterasked the Secretary of State for Defence how many (a) officers and (b) men have left the Royal Navy under redundancy schemes in each year since 1960.
§ Mr. GoodhartThe numbers of officers and ratings who have left the Royal Navy under redundancy schemes since 1960 are set out in the following table:
162W
Financial Year Officers Ratings 1960–61 197 6 1961–62 103 0 1962–63 39 0 1963–64 0 0 1964–65 0 0 1965–66 0 0 1966–67 0 0 1967–68 0 0 1968–69 0 0 1969–70 0 0 1970–71 32 768 1971–72 111 75 1972–73 203 608 1973–74 0 117 1974–75 0 0 1975–76 0 0 1976–77 11 0 1977–78 24 0
Financial Year Officers Ratings 1978–79 12 0 1979–80 2 0 1980–81 0 0 1981 to date 0 0 Total 734 1574
§ Mr. Trotterasked the Secretary of State for Defence which ships of the Royal Navy have been awaiting refit or modernisation in a dockyard for more than six months in the last five years; and on which date and after how long, in each case, the work concerned commenced.
§ Mr. GoodhartIn the past five years five Royal Navy ships and submarines have waited more than six months for major or normal refits. The planned and actual start dates were:
Original planned Start Date Actual Start Date Major Refits HMS "Hermione" August 1979 January 1980 HMS "Swiftsure" February 1979 April 1980 HMS "Fife" September 1979 October 1980 Normal Refits HMS "Fearless" December 1978 August 1980* HMS "Walrus" January 1980 November 1980 * By contract. In general, the naval operational and dockyard refit programmes are dovetailed and continuously reviewed to maximise operational availability and to balance dockyard load and capacity as smoothly as practicable, taking the fullest advantage of permissible refit interval flexibility. When this is not wholly practicable, limited refit activities, such as delagging and stripping out, are sometimes started in advance of other refit work. Where refits have had to be deferreed this has been due mainly to the effects on dockyard capacity of packets of key trade labour shortage and/or industrial disputes.
§ Mr. Trotterasked the Secretary of State for Defence what has been the lowest manpower strength of the Royal Navy since 1945; in which year this level was reached; and in which year the strength of the Royal Navy was last less than 50,000.
§ Mr. GoodhartThe lowest total manpower strength of the Royal Navy since 1945 was 60,043, in 1979. the last year in which the strength of the Royal Navy was below 50,000 was 1889, since then the role, organisation and capabilities of the Fleet have changed.