§ Dr. David ClarkTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on the future of the Army workshops. [5547]
§ Mr. SoamesThe Army base repair organisation—ABRO—currently operates nine workshops. Two of these, at Old Dalby, Leicestershire and Ashford, Kent, are to close in 1996 in order to match capacity to lower levels of demand following the "Options for Change" review. The major workshop facility at Bovington, Dorset, operates under the terms of a five year service level agreement, following a successful in-house bid in the pilot ABRO market test. The future of the five workshops in the ABRO land command support group depends upon the outcome of the current market test of the service that the group delivers to Army land command throughout the United Kingdom except Northern Ireland.
The facility at Donnington, Shropshire, will be subject to scrutiny during 1996–97 to determine the most appropriate strategy to deliver the "Competing for Quality" objectives.