§ Mr. Keith SimpsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list the planned budget and total staff of the Chief of Defence Logistics after 1 April 2000. [74652]
§ Mr. George RobertsonThe Defence Logistics Organisation (DLO), under the leadership of the Chief of Defence Logistics (CDL), will form on 1 April 1999. It will combine the three existing single-service logistics organisations, and headquarters logistic staff currently based in London, into a fully integrated logistics organisation. CDL will operate as a Top Level Budget Holder.
Detailed budgetary allocations to individual budget holders in the Ministry of Defence are made only one year in advance. Details for 1999–2000 will appear in the forthcoming Supply Estimates for that year and in the supporting information published alongside the Government Expenditure Plans. But, in broad terms, our plans for the financial year 2000–2001 envisage cash expenditure of the order of £4.5 billion in CDL's area of responsibility. The detailed budget will be published next year in Supply Estimates for 2000–2001.
Work continues to determine the structure of the unified DLO post 1 April 2000, however, initial staff numbers will be broadly comparable to the sum of the three Principal Administrative Officers' organisations which, as published in the UK Defence Statistics 1998, number some 41,400.