DEFENCE AVIATION REPAIR AGENCY, St ATHAN

Early day motion 45, tabled 17 May 2005 by Bill Wiggin (Conservative). Signed by 41 members.

That this House notes with concern the Ministry of Defence's preferred option of relocating almost the entire deep repair and maintenance of its fast jets in-house at RAF bases in England and away from the world-beating Defence Aviation Repair Agency (DARA) at St Athan, where this work is successfully undertaken by a highly trained workforce and where a publicly funded £77 million hangar, purpose-built to repair these jets, is approaching completion; is concerned that the review of air logistics on which this option is based ignores the strategic role given to DARA by the Government as recently as April 2001 to provide a competitive alternative to commercial sources of repair work, and makes no distinction between uniformed RAF personnel operating under a military code and civilians working in a competitive commercial environment; recognises that there is no military or economic case for this work to be undertaken by the RAF; believes that, if implemented, this option will inevitably result in a return to a costly and inefficient dependence on a single monopoly source of depth support from a private contractor as a direct consequence of asking dedicated servicemen and women to try and emulate factory workers; and calls on the Government to reconsider this option, in the interests of front line capability, the British taxpayer and the future of the South Wales aviation industry.

Signatures by party: Conservative 39, DUP 1, Liberal Democrat 1.