RAF Wyton (Hansard, 15 March 1993)

§ Mr. Robert Banks
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what is the latest estimated cost of relocating staff to the proposed logistics organisation at RAF Wyton.

§ Mr. Archie Hamilton
About £14 million.

§ Mr. Robert Banks
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what indications he has received from civilian72W employees at the RAF support management group in Harrogate as to their willingness to transfer to RAF Wyton.

§ Mr. Archie Hamilton
A first preference exercise was conducted late last year. The form set out a range of possible future locations. Some 40 per cent. of civilian mobile grades and 30 per cent. of non-mobile grades expressed a preference which included moving to Brampton or Wyton.

§ Mr. Robert Banks
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will set out the numbers and types of personnel currently employed at RAF Wyton.

§ Mr. Archie Hamilton
There are around 188 service and 200 civilian personnel at RAF Wyton. They include air crew, engineers, administrators and supporting staff.

§ Mr. Robert Banks
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many civilian and military personnel are scheduled to move from RAF Wyton in the foreseeable future; and what are the projected costs.

§ Mr. Archie Hamilton
I hope to make a further announcement about the future of RAF Wyton shortly.

§ Mr. Robert Banks
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what is his present budget for redundancy payments to civilian staff at the RAF support management group in Harrogate arising from his proposals to relocate to RAF Wyton.

§ Mr. Archie Hamilton
We assumed a redundancy liability of around £7 million in assessing the relocation at RAF Wyton of the RAF support management group and related units. This is a worst case scenario: we would hope in practice to do better.

§ Mr. Robert Banks
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what are the projected costs for training new members of staff in civilian grades resulting from the proposed amalgamation of units under Logistics Command at RAF Wyton.

§ Mr. Archie Hamilton
The direct additional training costs are put at about £600,000. In addition, some £2.5 million has been estimated to cover various transitional costs, including dual manning during initial training of new staff.

§ Mr. Robert Banks
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence when he expects to make available the figures and evaluations of the use of the Army Apprentices College, Harrogate, for the RAF support management group in Harrogate with or without other units.

§ Mr. Archie Hamilton
I expect the current appraisal of the site for possible use by RAF Logistic Command to be completed shortly. My intention would be to make the relevant material available then, subject to the usual constraints of commercial sensitivity and confidentiality.