Plenary, 04 Sep 2003

Meeting date: Thursday, September 4, 2003

Official Report 712KB pdf

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Defence Aviation Repair Agency

The final item of business today is a members' business debate on motion S2M-264, in the name of Roseanna Cunningham. The debate will be concluded without any question being put.

Motion debated,

That the Parliament notes the continued speculation about the impact of the Ministry of Defence's ‘End to End Review' on the future of the Defence Aviation Repair Agency (DARA) in Almondbank; is concerned about the threat to the 325 jobs at the facility; recognises the important and specialised skills of the workforce there which are significant to both Perthshire locally and Scotland as a whole; acknowledges the massive local economic impact of DARA in Almondbank as evidenced by the Mackay Consultants' report of August 2003; further notes the cross party and multi-agency Welsh campaign to defend DARA jobs in Wales, and believes that the Scottish Executive should ensure that a similar campaign is organised in Scotland in order to protect and defend the continued existence of defence jobs at DARA in Almondbank.

The text of the motion makes it clear why I requested the debate. The Defence Aviation Repair Agency at Almondbank is one of the most important employers in my constituency. Indeed, it also employs people from neighbouring constituencies, so the concern and interest about it go rather wider than just Perthshire. DARA Almondbank is the only DARA operation in Scotland, so it is important not just to Perthshire but to Scotland as a whole.

For those who are less than familiar with DARA, I should make it clear that it maintains, repairs and overhauls aircraft, including helicopters, for the Ministry of Defence. There are four DARA sites in the UK—St Athan in south Wales, Sealand in north Wales, Fleetlands in Portsmouth and of course Almondbank. DARA came into being in 1999, but the Almondbank plant had already been in existence under another guise for many years.

DARA as a whole is permitted to contract for non-MOD work and it does so successfully, including at Almondbank. There are a number of operational units in DARA and the components unit is based at Almondbank and services rotary-wing, hydraulic, pneumatic and fuel components along with the secondary power systems of fixed-wing aircraft and various pieces of winch equipment. Members will understand from that that the work that is carried out is specialised and technical.

DARA Almondbank employs a work force of 325 on a permanent basis and about 25 others come in on a less permanent basis. Only last month, the Minister of State for the Armed Forces was at Almondbank for the official opening of the new hydraulic test facility. That £5 million investment was supposed to guarantee the future of the plant and its employees, but the threat remains.

DARA Almondbank's local economic impact cannot be over-emphasised. It is one of the largest employers in my constituency and the nature of its work makes it something of a rarity in the area, if not in Scotland as a whole. It is a measure of the local concern about the current situation that Perth and Kinross Council had Mackay Consultants prepare a report on the economic impact of closing DARA Almondbank.

I sent a copy of the report to the Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning; I hope that he has read it and therefore understands why there is such consternation at the current threat. The loss of DARA Almondbank would lead to a reduction of £28.8 million in the annual economic output of Perth and Kinross. The nature of the skills involved means that those whose jobs disappeared would be highly unlikely to find comparable work locally.

Local earnings would be reduced significantly, and earnings in Perth and Kinross are already significantly lower than in the rest of Scotland and the UK. There are also 20 apprentices at Almondbank on engineering apprenticeships, which are in decline in Scotland, so that would be another loss for Perthshire and Scotland as a whole. It goes without saying that Perth College would suffer if those apprentice places were lost. Indeed, whole courses would be lost from that college.

When DARA was set up in 1999 as a public-private partnership, its future was, in effect, guaranteed by project red dragon, which would be based at St Athan in Wales and include the building of the aerospace industry park at St Athan and a super hangar with 47 bays to allow work on military fast jets. It was hoped that, once underpinned by the MOD contracts, civil aviation companies and other aviation businesses would use the services at St Athan. Without red dragon, the future for DARA would be very dodgy indeed, and the future of the site at Almondbank in my constituency is bound up with the future of the agency as a whole.

With that background, it should be clear why the BBC report on 18 July was greeted with such concern in all communities where DARA has a presence. The BBC reported that the MOD, in a secret review, was considering dropping the project and repairing planes at existing Royal Air Force bases. In Perthshire, the reaction was swift. Meetings took place, which included representatives of the relevant trade unions, Perth College, Perthshire Chamber of Commerce, Scottish Enterprise Tayside, the Westminster MP Annabelle Ewing, council officials, councillors and me.

It was clear that the threat was perceived to be real and that the response had to match that threat. That is why Perth and Kinross Council commissioned the Mackay report and why I wrote to the Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning urging him to recognise the dire consequences of closure. I also invited him to join the local cross-party, cross-agency campaign to persuade the Westminster Government to reject the recommendations of the end-to-end review.

In Wales, too, the response was swift, but there local campaigners were joined by the Administration in the National Assembly for Wales. Assembly members and MPs of all parties and the Wales Office were already working together to ensure the continuation of the DARA presence weeks before the minister even replied to my call for his support in Scotland. Unfortunately, when the response finally came, it did not inspire confidence that we were going to see the sort of urgency and combined determination that we have seen in Wales. The minister said in his reply that the Scottish Executive would do all that it could, but his plan of action seemed to involve little more than speaking to Adam Ingram.

I believe that Almondbank needs a great deal more than that. It is not enough to be told that DARA will be saved. That does not mean that Almondbank will be saved. It is not enough to be told that Almondbank will not be closed. That does not mean that jobs will not be lost. Tonight, I am looking for an assurance not only that the Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning and his department will acknowledge the serious impact on Perthshire if jobs are lost at Almondbank—and God forbid that it should close—but that he will meet the local campaign and make the strongest possible representations to the MOD and the UK Cabinet that the jobs at DARA Almondbank must be retained for Perthshire and for Scotland.

I know that because the jobs are defence jobs this matter principally is in the hands of a Westminster department that is responsible for reserved matters, but in Wales that has not been seen as a barrier to mounting the strongest possible campaign to prevent any threat to DARA jobs that are based in Wales. We need exactly the same expressions of combined support and strong campaigning in Scotland and for Scotland, to ensure that DARA Almondbank does not fall through the net when the row over DARA ends.

Presiding Officer, thank you for calling me early in this debate. As I intimated to you, I have to leave to go to another engagement. I apologise in advance to members and the minister for leaving the debate early. I shall read the Official Report with great interest and study the minister's response.

I commend Roseanna Cunningham for her motion and for securing this debate even in her presently handicapped circumstances. We wish her a speedy recovery.

I had the pleasure of visiting DARA Almondbank about two weeks ago, when the Minister of State for the Armed Forces was there. I had the opportunity to tour the facilities and to meet members of the work force. I was impressed by their dedication and the quality of the skills that was apparent.

The work that is carried out by DARA at Almondbank is unique. It has the only test rig for Chinook helicopters outside Philadelphia. If DARA were to close, heaven forbid, it would be almost impossible for the MOD to have the work carried out elsewhere.

Almondbank might seem a strange place to have a defence aviation repair facility. Originally, all the facilities were based in Coventry. I understand that the reason why the facility moved to Almondbank was that, during the second world war, Coventry was subject to such bombing by the axis powers that the facilities were outsourced to different parts of the UK. The reason why Almondbank was chosen was that it was felt that, tucked away in a quiet corner of Perthshire, it would be safe from German bombers. The Perthshire economy has benefited considerably.

As we have heard, DARA is now a vital part of the Perth and Kinross economy and it employs 325 people. It is not only the headline figures that are important because many of the jobs at DARA are highly skilled engineering positions. If those jobs were lost to the Perthshire economy, they would be difficult to replace. The quality of those jobs is particularly important given the dependence of the Perthshire economy on the service sector, with its low-paid jobs in tourism and hospitality, for example. There is no doubt that the closure of DARA would have a devastating impact on the Perthshire economy. There would be a loss of some £28.8 million per year, as the Mackay Consultants report showed. According to the same report, if one were to multiply the loss of jobs by a standard multiplier of 1.6, 521 jobs would be lost in total, which would mean an increase in unemployment in Perth and Kinross by a third. That is a substantial figure.

When I was at DARA, I heard the Minister of State for the Armed Forces, Adam Ingram, speak to the work force. He was full of praise for the work force, who welcomed his warm words. However, warm words are not enough; there must be a firm commitment from the MOD to retain the jobs at DARA. The members of the work force to whom I spoke felt reassured by the minister's remarks. They were aware that, to an extent, the future lay in their hands. They were confident that, given the quality of the work done at Almondbank, on no objective assessment was there any argument for taking that work away.

However, politicians are funny creatures, as we know. We need the Scottish Executive to make the point that the jobs must be retained in the Perthshire economy. We know that defence is a reserved matter but, as Roseanna Cunningham said, this is an economic issue. Economic and enterprise powers are in the hands of the Scottish Parliament, so it is a matter for the Scottish Executive to address with the Ministry of Defence.

I welcome Roseanna Cunningham's motion and I look forward to reading the minister's response.

I recognise that members will be wondering what I am doing in the chamber, given that the subject of the debate is not a constituency issue. Indeed, I could argue that it is not a policy area over which we have responsibility. I have no problem with the terms of Roseanna Cunningham's motion. It is sensible to seek to protect and defend defence jobs and, equally, to recognise the specialist skills of the work force.

Roseanna Cunningham is right that defence is a critically important industry for Scotland. It generates thousands of jobs and millions of pounds are invested in our economy as a consequence. It matters to us.

Whether it is the MOD in Glasgow, DARA at Almondbank or indeed Her Majesty's naval base Clyde at Faslane, it is important to Scotland. Faslane is important to the Scottish economy and I make no apology for mentioning it. Some 7,000 people are employed at Faslane, 4,000 of whom are civilians. There are 3,700 indirect jobs as a result of supplier linkages and income multipliers. It is one of the largest single-site employers in Scotland and by far the largest source of jobs in the local economy of West Dunbartonshire—one of the most disadvantaged areas of Scotland. I make no apology for talking about economic impact because it is recognised in Roseanna Cunningham's comments and in her motion. Nonetheless, I hope that Roseanna Cunningham will convey the message to the SNP that a consistent approach is required. SNP members cannot argue one defence policy as local MSPs and another one entirely when they put on their party hat.

I confess that I am unclear about the SNP's current defence policy—whether it is for us to be in or out of NATO—and what its position is on Faslane, a matter that we have debated in the Parliament. One SNP MSP said, "Don't worry. When we scrap Faslane, we will base the Scottish navy there, so things will be fine." That was interesting because, at the same time, Alex Salmond was saying, "Don't worry. It will be based at Rosyth, not at Faslane." Does the SNP have one policy for the west and another policy for the east, or is it a case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing? Just for the record, when asked about the size of the Scottish navy, the SNP member said that it was going to be seven frigates. That would involve 100 jobs. There was no mention of the 10,600 remaining employees who would become unemployed.

As long as we are in the UK and part of the UK structure, Scotland should get some of the economic benefit from the share of our taxes that go to defence spending. That is what the debate is about.

We receive a huge benefit through defence spending in Scotland. For example, there is Faslane, which is the nuclear deterrent base for the whole of the UK—never mind the establishments at Almondbank, Rosyth and elsewhere, and jobs that are protected in Govan and on the Clyde. It is not a question of defence spending; it is a question of consistency in SNP policy.

I have a great deal of sympathy with the proposition in Roseanna Cunningham's motion. We should all do everything that we can to support the staff at Almondbank. However, SNP members should come clean. On the one hand, they campaign for the closure of Faslane, which would remove 10,600 defence jobs; on the other hand, when the matter is close to home, they sing from a very different hymn sheet. In similar vein, where were the SNP members when British Energy recently shed around 300 posts in East Kilbride? Did they say anything about that? Not a peep. Perhaps that was because those posts were concerned with nuclear power.

I welcome what I hope is a conversion of the SNP to protecting defence jobs in Scotland. In seeking to protect jobs at Almondbank, Roseanna Cunningham must also recognise the positive news of the £5 million investment in the new facility there, which came on top of an earlier investment of £11 million. I am happy to support the workers at Almondbank, but I ask for some consistency of approach from the SNP.

Jackie Baillie is being disingenuous. She knows perfectly well that the Scottish defence forces in an independent Scotland would retain roughly the same number of employees as are currently employed—some 25,000 people. My colleague, John Swinney, will say more about that in his speech. I shall focus on some of the defence facilities in Scotland and the costs to wider Scotland of the country's being used for defence.

One third of lower air space in Scotland is reserved for military flying. That is good. We have the opportunity to provide that facility to other NATO countries, such as the United States and Germany, whose aircraft are regularly seen flying around the treetops in constituencies in the North of Scotland. However, the price for that is paid by the local people who live in those areas—a price that is paid also in military flying areas in the Borders—and there is no concomitant benefit in jobs on the ground from that activity. Nevertheless, the major facilities at Lossie, Kinloss and Leuchars bring tremendous economic benefit to the local communities. Those communities understand the price that they pay in noise and disruption and recognise the local benefits that they acquire.

It is not just my colleague Roseanna Cunningham's constituency that is being affected by closures. Jobs have been lost in the constituency of the Deputy Minister for Finance and Public Services, with the recent closure of radar facilities at RAF Saxa Vord. Therefore, I hope that he will show an understanding of Roseanna Cunningham's position.

Strange things have happened, such as the aerodrome at West Freugh in south-west Scotland being closed with less than 24 hours' notice, which meant that three civilian planes found themselves locked behind the gates and were unable to get out for a week. Therefore, I think that we are right to be concerned about the jobs at Almondbank and to act pre-emptively to defend them.

We lost military contracts at Rosyth but recently gained some on the Clyde, which is good news. However, at Tain, to the north of Inverness, live munitions are dropped within sight and sound of the local community. Aircraft come from Germany to do that, but they do not stop in Scotland to refuel, nor do they bring any other benefits. Many of the costs that are borne by communities throughout Scotland to support the military are not matched by concomitant benefits. It is on that basis that I am happy to make a brief speech in defence of the facilities in Roseanna Cunningham's constituency.

We need our fair share. One of the things that the unionists always tell us is that there are benefits from being in the union, but there are also disbenefits, if we are not getting our fair share. I hope that the minister will be able to reassure us that his Executive and members throughout Parliament will be able to unite in a vigorous campaign to ensure that we retain the important jobs at Almondbank.

I join colleagues in congratulating Roseanna Cunningham on obtaining this important debate. DARA seems to follow me around. DARA Sealand is but a few miles outside the Westminster constituency that I represented in north Wales—perhaps I follow DARA around, to be more precise.

The loss of the jobs at DARA Almondbank would be a serious blow to the local economy not only of Perth and Kinross, but of Mid Scotland and Fife. However, it is important that I say at the beginning that no decisions have been made. I emphasise that not only because of the cross-party consensus that exists over Almondbank, but because of the tremendously unsettling effect, given the prevailing uncertainty, that media reports have had on those employed at Almondbank.

One cannot overstate the importance of DARA Almondbank to Perth and Kinross and its local economy. As Roseanna Cunningham said, we are talking about 325 permanent full-time jobs, 200 of which are highly skilled. The fact that Almondbank is involved in the repair and overhaul of 15,000 components of 470 different types is a measure of just how highly skilled those jobs are. Almondbank is a world-class centre of engineering skills.

Over the past five years there has been an investment of £15 million in Almondbank that culminated, as Ms Cunningham rightly said, in the opening of the new hydraulics test facility just two weeks ago by the UK Government minister at the centre of the debate, the Minister of State for the Armed Forces, Adam Ingram. If Almondbank were to be closed, there would be a multiplier effect on the local economy that would mean the loss of a further 200 jobs and a reduction in local income and thus spending in local shops and on local services of £12 million.

With Perth College and its subsidiary, Air Service Training (Engineering), DARA Almondbank has developed and become a market leader in the education and training of aircraft engineers, particularly helicopter engineers. That has meant a growing connection with the oil business through North sea helicopter operators in Aberdeen. I believe that we all want that connection to be enhanced and developed. Reference was made earlier to the 20 apprenticeships at Almondbank, which are very important. The number might seem small but, in the context of a declining number of engineering apprenticeships in Scotland, those 20 apprenticeships are very important.

I pray that the closure of Almondbank does not happen, but should it do so it would mean the loss of an immensely important, highly skilled centre that is unlike many of the plants and new jobs that we have attracted to Scotland in recent years. I am afraid that I am not a great devotee of call centres. They may provide a lot of jobs, but they tend to be the kind of operation that is closed first in a recession. What I want to see is the development of far more world-class centres such as DARA Almondbank.

I mentioned the reduction in local spending, and Roseanna Cunningham mentioned the devastating impact that closure would have, with the loss of £28.8 million to the local economy and unemployment locally rising by a third. We are talking about the loss of highly skilled engineering jobs and the loss of apprenticeships and training opportunities for the young, resulting in a reduction in local income and in spending in local shops and services.

I understand that the MOD end-to-end review, which I have never before heard described as secret, has been completed and that the report has gone to the minister. We now await a decision. I am glad that the Deputy First Minister and Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning has made strong representations to the Minister of State for the Armed Forces, and I am glad that Scottish Executive officials are in daily contact with their counterparts in the MOD. I hope that the Deputy Minister for Finance and Public Services will confirm that in winding up. The message that must go out from this debate is that there is cross-party unity. We are all singing from the same hymn sheet and are all agreed that DARA Almondbank must not be closed. This is not a party-political issue; we all want that plant to be developed further.

I am sure that all political parties will work together with Perth and Kinross Council and with our Westminster colleagues to put additional pressure on the MOD. That pressure must be not just for the right decision but for an early decision. As Jim Wallace himself has said, it is essential that we have a speedy resolution to the issue, as it is having a very unsettling effect on the work force at Almondbank and causing a great deal of uncertainty. I hope that he will continue to put pressure on the Minister of State for the Armed Forces for an early decision, by which I mean a decision before the end of this month.

Having listened to Mr Raffan saying that there is cross-party unity and to the comments made by Jackie Baillie, I wonder whether I have been listening to the same debate.

Will Mr Swinney give way?

I think that I shall hold off for a second before accepting interventions. I shall get started on Jackie Baillie later in my speech, and I shall allow her to intervene then.

I begin by congratulating Roseanna Cunningham, the representative of a neighbouring constituency to mine, on securing this evening's debate. Roseanna is not the first person whom I would accuse of seeking and securing consensus across the political parties, but she has certainly been active in working with all parties in Perth and Kinross Council, where a wind of change is bringing about cross-party co-operation on this important issue. I welcome the initiatives that have been taken by Perth and Kinross Council in that respect.

I contribute to the debate primarily from a local perspective, as I am the member of the Scottish Parliament for the neighbouring constituency of North Tayside, where many of the DARA employees are resident. I had the privilege of campaigning in the Almondbank area until 1997, when the village was taken out of the North Tayside constituency and placed in the Perth constituency. I would like to think that all my door knocking over the years contributed to the handsome result that my deputy achieved there.

The local impact of a closure should not be underestimated, and such an impact would not affect the Perth constituency alone but also the neighbouring constituencies. The type of skilled employment that is created at Almondbank is of such significance that it is worthy of the description that Mr Raffan awarded to it—a world-class centre of engineering skills. That type of employment is very difficult to replace if it is jeopardised. If there were to be a much-regretted closure of DARA in Almondbank, that would lead to the loss of highly skilled personnel from the local community, and in turn to the loss of their families, as they sought employment elsewhere. I know constituents who have previously been employed at DARA. The nature of their skills is such that they are in a labour market that takes them around most of western Europe on a fairly regular basis. Having worked at DARA in the past, a former Perth and Kinross Council colleague now has to work in Coventry on other highly skilled engineering projects.

The skills are fundamental to the local economy, and the economic significance of the plant cannot be understated. It contributes enormously to the local economy and any erosion of that contribution would be to the detriment of the economy of Perth and Kinross.

One of the assumptions that is made about the Perth and Kinross area—I read it all the time in profiles of my constituency and of Roseanna Cunningham's—is that it is an affluent area of Scotland. Of course, there is indigenous and inherent wealth within it, but the city of Perth has taken a number of serious economic knocks in the past few years. The employment situation has deteriorated due to what happened at General Accident and Norwich Union, and there have been many takeovers and employment losses at Diageo. The Perthshire economy has been affected by serious issues and we should mount a vigorous effort to safeguard employment at DARA.

In that respect, I heartily endorse the final part of Roseanna Cunningham's motion, which encourages the Executive to play a critical role in agitating and arguing from a Scottish perspective for the maintenance of the employment in question, notwithstanding the fact that the jobs are defence jobs. The Scottish Executive needs to be as vigorously involved in protecting the economic interests of DARA in Perthshire as the Welsh Executive and the National Assembly for Wales are involved in the process in Wales.

Finally, I want to discuss defence spending. If it is possible for Jackie Baillie to deliver the speech that she delivered and not be thrown out of the chamber for being out of order, it will be safe for me to say what I am about to say, albeit that Presiding Officers can always reinterpret rules in debates as they go along.

Will the member take an intervention?

I might as well hear all that the member has to say before I continue.

Absolutely—I am giving the member ample opportunity to respond.

The member will acknowledge that I gave my absolute support to the 325 DARA employees and to Roseanna Cunningham's motion. Is the SNP going to have a consistent approach? Will the member give the same commitment that he has given to DARA to the 11,000 people who rely on Faslane for employment?

John Swinney has two minutes.

I thank the Presiding Officer for giving me those two minutes.

Stewart Stevenson said that the SNP's defence policy has always been predicated on the presumption that when Scotland becomes an independent country, we would sustain the same level of employment within the defence industries—that is a cardinal commitment of our defence policy. I will not stand here and say that the jobs in question will be entirely the same jobs, servicing the same parts of the defence industries. A fundamental and well-established part of my party's attitude towards defence is that we do not support the nuclear deterrent—we never have done—so there would have to be a reconfiguration of the defence industries.

What Jackie Baillie said was almost predicated on the assumption that in the lovely and beautiful United Kingdom in which we live, we have never lost a defence job. However, we have lost thousands of defence jobs. When Murdo Fraser's party was in power and when Jackie Baillie's party has been in power, we have lost defence jobs. We have lost defence jobs in the United Kingdom, so no member should say that defence jobs would somehow be jeopardised only by independence.

I return to what Roseanna Cunningham said. Scotland has 8.6 per cent of the UK population. We contribute more to the UK than we get back. The last time I examined the calculations, the estimates showed that Scotland receives around 4 per cent of defence expenditure in the UK. Whichever way the economics are totted up, there is a one-way street in which Scotland is losing out.

I do not want to sour the debate by responding to Jackie Baillie's vigorous challenges, but simply want to say that I welcome the debate that Roseanna Cunningham has initiated. I welcome the Conservatives', Liberal Democrats' and Labour party's endorsement of what has been said, which reflects the all-party support for efforts by Perth and Kinross Council and in Perthshire to safeguard the employment in question. I hope that in closing the debate, the minister will give us the reassurance that we seek that the Executive is right behind the campaign in Perthshire to safeguard the jobs for the future of the constituents that Roseanna Cunningham and I have the privilege to represent.

I do not always learn something new in debates in the chamber, but I have been genuinely interested by Roseanna Cunningham's persuasive case and the cases that other members have made. Even the debate on defence policy that Jackie Baillie initiated was interesting; however, Roseanna Cunningham will probably forgive me for not going into defence policy on this occasion.

I pay tribute to Roseanna Cunningham for bringing the matter to the Parliament. Defence matters are reserved to Westminster, but it is important that the Parliament understands the facts. Roseanna Cunningham has rightly described the serious issues that confront her constituency.

Jackie Baillie referred to the fact that Scotland makes a real contribution to the defence of the United Kingdom—in people, resources and commitment. Scotland also benefits from defence financially—through employment and in less tangible ways. Although defence is reserved, the MOD recognises that the Scottish Parliament, the Executive and local authorities, such as the local authority to which Roseanna Cunningham referred, have a vital role to play.

The Scottish Parliament and the Executive have a role in helping to ensure that Scottish interests are taken into account when UK defence policy is framed and implemented and when the MOD carries out its reserved responsibilities, particularly when the decisions directly affect both the MOD and the many thousands of MOD personnel who live and work in Scotland.

Almondbank has been the subject of widespread speculation as a result of the MOD's end-to-end review. The review has examined the provision of UK-wide—as Roseanna Cunningham rightly said—logistic support across defence. I want to say at the outset that this devolved Government is doing all it can to safeguard any Scottish jobs that may be under threat as a result of the review.

As I understand it, the review aims to deliver more effective and efficient support to the front line. I am sure that members will support that objective. The review addresses the full scope of logistic support to land and air forces, from industry to the battlefield. As such, it looks much wider than Almondbank—and, indeed, wider than DARA.

I am glad that the minister has given an assurance that the Executive will campaign vigorously to preserve those jobs. Ms Cunningham and Mr Swinney rightly drew attention to what the Welsh—my former colleagues in Wales—are doing. They are launching a feisty and formidable campaign to preserve the jobs at Sealand and St Athans. It is important that the Scottish Executive does not appear to be following weakly in their wake, but is up there with them making just as strong a case for Scottish jobs and the jobs at Almondbank.

I take Mr Raffan's point. I will address that issue shortly.

The Executive has been assured by the MOD that there is no secret agenda in the end-to-end review about the future of DARA Almondbank. We fully understand that the MOD will want to achieve solutions that provide best value for money while preserving operational effectiveness.

Executive ministers have been reassured that, in accordance with the MOD's commitment to the trade unions, there will be a level playing field in considering in-house and external solutions. I can report to Parliament that the Scottish ministers and officials have, as Keith Raffan and Roseanna Cunningham mentioned, been keeping in close touch with the MOD about the developments.

The Scottish Executive understands the importance of DARA to the local economy in Ms Cunningham's constituency and in the surrounding constituencies that Mr Swinney and others have mentioned.

The Executive has been reassured that the end-to-end review recommendations that have significant investment implications or which might impact on civilian jobs will be subject to full investment appraisal to establish the costs and benefits, and to full trade union consultation in the usual way. The Executive and, I am sure, Parliament would expect nothing less from the MOD.

Murdo Fraser, who has now left the chamber, Roseanna Cunningham and other members have mentioned that Adam Ingram, the Minister of State for the Armed Forces, visited DARA Almondbank on 22 August. I am told that, as some members have mentioned, he gave assurances that there are no plans to close DARA Almondbank. Indeed, the recently opened £5 million hydraulic facility should put Almondbank at the forefront of mechanical component repair for the new Tornado and Typhoon work.

The Executive understands that defence ministers have felt able to refute the Transport and General Workers Union assertion that the review entails considerable job losses for Almondbank. It is important to point out that the TGWU has had full access to management and to ministers in Whitehall. I understand that it has been consistently reassured by management that there is no secret agenda as regards DARA.

Recent investments such as the new test facility at Almondbank put it in a good position to secure new work. The Scottish Executive has every reason to believe that the skills and competitiveness of the work force and management at Almondbank will ensure its long-term future. I recognise those points, which other members have also made.

I thank the minister for his remarks.

The difficulty is that the proposals that are apparently contained within the end-to-end review would effectively remove something like a third of the current work that is pledged to DARA. If that is removed from DARA as a whole, there is an undoubted threat to jobs throughout DARA; that is obviously why the Welsh are campaigning so strongly, because they have the lion's share of the jobs.

If the end-to-end review is implemented, the likes of Almondbank may fall off the end of the table. That is why I want the minister to promise a visible and vocal campaign to defend jobs there. We have not really had that so far.

I take Roseanna Cunningham's points. We seek to do things in different ways. Sometimes the public presentation may not be as formidable as some would like. It is important to recognise that there are different mechanisms for getting points across. At times we have to work through existing systems in order to make our case. However, I assure Roseanna Cunningham that the case that we are making, and continue to make, will be very strong.

The agency carries out work not only for the MOD but, increasingly, for private companies, including a number of companies in the civil aviation sector. That work is important. The MOD is aware of the local authority assessment that Roseanna Cunningham mentioned and it is considering the economic impact. As Ms Cunningham would expect, officials from the Scottish Executive Enterprise, Transport and Lifelong Learning Department are also involved.

I will conclude by dealing with Roseanna Cunningham's two challenges. The Scottish Executive understands local concern about Almondbank and is doing all it can to safeguard any Scottish jobs that may be under threat. We acknowledge the critical role that Almondbank plays—in terms of its professional capabilities and in terms of its wider social and economic impact. I know that Ms Cunningham has asked for a meeting with the Deputy First Minister. I have spoken to the Deputy First Minister and he is minded to arrange that meeting as soon as is practically possible. I therefore hope that the two points that Ms Cunningham raised in her final remarks have been dealt with.

Meeting closed at 17:52.