Gosport MP Caroline Dinenage has welcomed news from the Ministry of Defence revealing that the Defence School of Marine Engineering and the Royal Naval Air Engineering and Survival Equipment School will be remaining at HMS Sultan following a recent Government review.
As part of the Defence Training Review, the Defence Technical Training Change Programme (DTTCP) was established to reform the way in which technical training was delivered to the Armed Forces. Proposals were set out to move the two schools at HMS Sultan to MOD Lyneham in Wiltshire. Since the Review began, Caroline has repeatedly stood up for these two local military training schools; she has written to Defence Ministers calling for the schools to be protected, met with former Defence Minister Anna Soubry MP on the issue and raised the matter during Questions to the Secretary of State for Defence in Parliament.
It has now been decided that it is in the best interest of the Ministry of Defence to maintain the schools at HMS Sultan, both of which will continue to play an invaluable role in forming the UK's Defence College of Training.
Caroline said:
"After months of letter writing and discussions with Ministers, I am thrilled to hear that these two schools which provide outstanding training to Navy personnel and a large number of jobs to local people are set to remain at HMS Sultan. We have a proud history of serving our Armed Forces and training facilities such as these are vital to ensuring that our personnel are equipped with the skills they need to defend our country."
After Caroline was first elected in 2010, she led a similar campaign to protect the Royal Naval School of Engineering at HMS Sultan from relocation to south Wales and since then it has delivered training for service personnel to a level that has been rated 'Outstanding' by OFSTED.
