Julian Lewis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julian Lewis on 2016-05-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, for what reason the proposed transfer of land and historic buildings from his Department to Portsmouth Naval Base Property Trust by the end of 2016 has been delayed; and whether it remains his policy to carry out that transfer.

Mark Lancaster

The Strategic Defence and Security Review 2015, confirmed that both carriers will be operational concurrently. This changes the level of activity, security and safety considerations for Victory and Sheer jetties. Such operational consideration and financial challenges faced by the Department have resulted in the need to plan a deferral of the transfer, the Department is working to identify and limit the length of this delay.

Consideration is being given to deferring the transfer of some elements of the adjoining estate until the Naval Base better understands the challenges of maintaining the flow of logistics through the area in question and the security and safety aspects of operating two carriers in the vicinity of what could potentially become a tourist zone.

We have not made an assessment of the merits of preserving the historic assets now that the project has been delayed. The assessment made previously was that their preservation would be best delivered by transferring them to the Portsmouth Naval Base Property Trust (PNBP).

The Department remains committed to preserving these assets and will examine how best to do so in light of this delay and will work with the PNBP in doing so.