HEADQUARTERS AIR COMMAND Air-DRes Sec 3b A Rayden Spitfire Block Royal Air Force High Wycombe Buckinghamshire HP14 4UE E-mail: request-124987- Our Ref: 09-08-2012-151700-09 [email protected] 6 September 2012 Dear Sir or Madam, Thank you for your email of 9 August asking for information about the disbandment of XIII Squadron based at RAF Marham, and 14 Squadron from RAF Lossiemouth. This has been considered as a request for information in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA). I can confirm that the MOD does hold some of the information within the scope of your request. I will answer each of your questions in turn: 1. How much money was saved through disbandment? I cannot provide a total savings figure relating only to the disbandment of XIII and 14 Squadrons because the decision was taken as part of the wider savings measures under the overarching Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) therefore the information requested is not held. 2. Current location of the aircraft? The aircraft have been re-distributed, in line with fleet management requirements, between other squadrons at both RAF Marham and RAF Lossiemouth, as listed in the tables below: XIII Squadron Aircraft Number on Aircraft Current Location Disbandment ZA400 TEF - RAF Lossiemouth ZA551 IX(B) Sqn - RAF Marham ZA587 II(AC) Sqn - RAF Marham XV(R) Sqn - RAF ZA588 Lossiemouth 12(B) Sqn - RAF ZD707 Lossiemouth 12(B) Sqn - RAF ZG712 Lossiemouth ZG713 TEF - RAF Lossiemouth XV(R) Sqn - RAF ZG752 Lossiemouth ZG791 CMU - RAF Marham Aircraft Number on Aircraft Current Location Disbandment ZA367 RTP - RAF Leeming 12(B) Sqn - RAF ZA372 Lossiemouth ZA591 CMU - RAF Marham ZA607 31 Sqn - RAF Marham ZD843 31 Sqn - RAF Marham 12(B) Sqn - RAF ZD847 Lossiemouth ZD851 TEF - RAF Lossiemouth ZD895 IX(B) Sqn - RAF Marham XV(R) Sqn - RAF ZG709 Lossiemouth 3. Current situation (no longer serving, or if still serving, their role) and location of personnel? The personnel from the disbanded squadrons are made up of engineers and aircrew. When the two squadrons disbanded engineering personnel were reassigned within the RAF. In the majority of cases personnel have either been allocated tours on the remaining Tornado squadrons at RAF Marham and RAF Lossiemouth, or assigned to recently formed Typhoon squadrons. We cannot provide the information on the current location of each individual engineer as this information is not held centrally and to provide it would exceed the cost compliance limit of the FOI Act which equates to £600. This represents the estimated cost of one person spending three and a half working days in determining whether the Department holds the information, and locating, retrieving and extracting the information. As provided by Section 12 of the Act, the MOD is not obliged to comply with this part of your request. It is estimated it would take 50 hours to search individual records for all engineers manually to ascertain their current location, at a rate of £25 per hour this equates to £1,250. Aircrew personnel have been redistributed and their current location is as follows: XIII Squadron Number of Personnel Location 11 Marham 1 Lossiemouth 2 High Wycombe 1 Warminster 1 Leeming 2 Waddington 2 MOD 2 Coningsby 1 Spadeadam 2 Overseas 1 Exchange officer return home 14 Squadron Number of Personnel Location 17 Lossiemouth 3 Marham 3 Valley 1 Leeming 1 Abbeywood 1 Boscombe Down 1 Waddington 1 High Wycombe 2 Overseas Aside from the exchange officer who returned to his own country, five aircrew are employed in flying related staff appointments while the remainder are all in flying appointments. If you are not satisfied with this response or you wish to complain about any aspect of the handling of your request, then you should contact me in the first instance. If informal resolution is not possible and you are still dissatisfied then you may apply for an independent internal review by contacting the Head of Corporate Information, 2nd Floor, MOD Main Building, Whitehall, SW1A 2HB (e-mail [email protected] ). Please note that any request for an internal review must be made within 40 working days of the date on which the attempt to reach informal resolution has come to an end. If you remain dissatisfied following an internal review, you may take your complaint to the Information Commissioner under the provisions of Section 50 of the Freedom of Information Act. Please note that the Information Commissioner will not investigate your case until the MOD internal review process has been completed. Further details of the role and powers of the Information Commissioner can be found on the Commissioner's website, http://www.ico.gov.uk. I am hope this is helpful. Yours sincerely Air Command Secretariat .