§ Mr. Simon ThomasTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many posts at the DERA establishment in Aberporth, Ceredigion will(a) transfer to NewDERA and (b) be retained within his Department as a result of his proposals in the public/private partnership consultation document. [119984]
§ Mr. HoonI refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Huddersfield (Mr. Sheerman), 17 April 2000,Official Report, columns 366-67W, which outlined our proposals for the DERA public-private partnership. These are described in more detail in the consultation document, a copy of which can be found in the Library of the House, and on the Internet at www.mod.uk/commercial/ppp/dera/.
Under our current proposals, we envisage that the capabilities provided by Aberporth will form part of the NewDERA company. It is, therefore, likely that posts at Aberporth would transfer. However, no final decisions will be taken until the current consultation exercise comes to an end. We will of course listen carefully to views and comments received during this process.