§ Mr. HarveyTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence (1) what assessment he has made of the practical viability of completing the full advanced flying training requirement at RAF Chivenor;
(2) how much would be saved annually by closing RAF Valley.
§ Mr. HanleyMy Department's study of the RAF's flying training organisation which I announced on 7 December 1993,Official Report, column 177, considered options for providing RAF flying training in the most efficient and cost-effective manner possible. The scope for carrying out flying training at RAF Chivenor was considered as part of this study. Chivenor does not, however, have the capacity to undertake all the future advanced flying training—AFT—task and, because it only has a single runway—compared to Valley's three—it would not be suitable for a high volume of concentrated AFT operations.
The study also concluded that, for operational reasons, RAF Valley should not be closed, and figures relating to savings which might result from its closure are not therefore available.