§ Angus RobertsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will extend the scope of the Hunting Aviation contract to provide aircraft and crews for routine training. [69995]
§ Mr. IngramHunting Contract Services is now part of the Babcock group. We currently have two contracts with Babcock HCS in support of non-operational flying training. One contract covers support services at RAF Cranwell, including engineering support of Jetstream and Dominie aircraft, which are used for Multi-Engine Flying training and for Navigator/rearcrew training. This contract ends on 30 March 2004. A competition will be held for a replacement contract and the scope of the contract will be increased to include the provision of aircraft.
The other current contract provides aircraft and the majority of the instructors for the Joint Elementary Flying Training School's tasks. This contract ends on 7 July 2003 and following a competition Babcock HCS have been awarded the follow on contract.
For the longer term the future delivery of flying training is being considered by the United Kingdom Military Flying Training System project.