§ Mr. KeetchTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence pursuant to his answer of 4 June 2003,Official Report, column 454W, on service manning targets, if he will list the (a) spending targets and (b) spending estimates for the current financial year on (i) personnel and (ii) manpower overheads in each of the Services; and if he will make a statement. [119449]
§ Mr. Caplin[holding answer 19 June 2003]: The Department does not have spending targets for personnel or manpower overheads (but spending plans which form part of the Main Supply Estimates each year). At this early stage of the financial year, spending estimates for the year will be the same as the plans.
The estimated costs of employing Service personnel for 2003–04 are shown in the table.
Spending plans—Service personnel (£ million) Navy 1.607 Army 4,181 RAF 2,029 We do not collect centrally the costs of manpower overheads for Service personnel. The costs of recruiting 523W and training Service personnel are lodged with the military manpower Top Level Budgets. Their net resource costs for 2003-04 are as follows:
Spending plans—military manpower TLBs (£ million) Navy 694 Army 1,681 RAF 1.018 Spending plans for Service personnel and associated overheads are at a level consistent with enabling the manning targets set out in the current Public Service Agreement to be met.