HC Deb 17 November 1983 vol 48 cc540-1W
Mr. Austin Mitchell

asked the Secretary of State for Defence what is the cost per head per person supplied in the case of in-house catering in the Army and Royal Air Force, respectively, having regard to the total cost of maintaining such in-house facilities, including all overheads and indirect costs: and whether he is satisfied that a similar service could not be supplied at lower cost by private contractors.

Mr. Stanley

It is not possible to break down the cost by service, but the full cost, including all overheads, of catering for officers and men in an average United Kingdom mess is estimated to have been £4.52 per head on average per day in 1982–83. Some use of private contractors in static non-operational messes is already being made and further extensions of this practice are being considered.

Mr. Austin Mitchell

asked the Secretary of State for Defence how many persons are engaged in cooking and catering for the Army and the Royal Air Force, respectively; what are the numbers in each rank; what is the total cost of maintaining this establishment; and what proportion of the catering used by each service is supplied by these in-house facilities.

Mr. Stanley

The information is as follows:

Numbers
ARMY
(a) Officers
Brigadier 2
Colonel 4
Lt. Colonel 17
Major 41
Captain 88
Subaltern 16
Total 168
(b) Service personnel
WO1 75
WO2 207
S/Sergeant 120
Sergeant 639
Corporal 981
L/Corporal 1,537
Private 1,471
Total 5,050
(c) Civilians* 3,264
ROYAL AIR FORCE
(a) Officers
Group Captain 2
Wing Commander 4
Squadron Leader 34
Flight Lieutenant 29
Flying Officer 37
Total 106

Numbers
(b) Service personnel
Warrant Officer 126
Flight/Sergeant 170
Sergeant 438
Corporal 1,089
Senior Aircraftsman 2,372
Total 4,195
(c) Civilians* 3,405
* Excludes locally engaged civilians overseas, for whom figures are not readily available.

The total staff costs of these facilities are about £137 million. In the Army about 99 per cent. of catering is supplied by in-house facilities while the figure for the RAF is about 96 per cent.

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