Northern Ireland

MOD spends £700 shipping boots to soldier

Ministry of Defence officials spent more than £700 shipping a pair of boots to a soldier in Northern Ireland, an MP revealed today.

MP Elfyn Llwyd - Plaid Cymru's Westminster leader – revealed the incident during Prime Minister's Question Time, saying the Government could ill-afford to waste money on private couriers to deliver boots to soldiers.

He said the serviceman had ordered the £45 pair of boots as a non-urgent item from the defence logistics centre at Bicester but a private courier was instructed to deliver them at a cost of £714.

Prime Minister David Cameron said: "I know former health ministers wanted to hear the rattle of every bed pan and maybe I need to see the order of every pair of boots in the military.

"But I recognise the point you make and one of the things we are trying to do in the Ministry of Defence is recognise that there's a huge amount of cost in terms of back office and logistics and we want to make that more efficient so we can actually spend money on the front line.

"The example you give is a good one. I will check it out and see if we can save some money."