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Battlefield Deception
Mr. Menzies Campbell : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what importance he attaches to systems of battlefield deception ; and what systems are available for deployment by the armed forces.
Mr. Archie Hamilton : The importance of battlefield deception will vary according to the tactical circumstances at the time. A wide variety of methods and equipments are available to aid in this task.
NATO Command and Control Systems
Mr. Menzies Campbell : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he has given consideration to the consequences for the Royal Air Force when the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation air command and control system is implemented ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Alan Clark : The NATO air command and control system (ACCS) is intended to enhance NATO's air defences by establishing a co-ordinated and interoperable system for the command and control of all air operations in Allied Command Europe. The United Kingdom strongly supports this objective, to which the modernisation of our air defence system under the improved United Kingdom air defence ground environment and related programmes will make a major contribution.
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Mr. Menzies Campbell : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what is his policy towards the co-ordination of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation command control and communications systems ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Alan Clark : The requirements for NATO infrastructure-funded command control and communications systems, as in the case of other infrastructure expenditure, are stated and co-ordinated by the major NATO commanders. The United Kingdom plays a full part in the scrutiny and control of NATO infrastructure expenditure through the established NATO mechanisms.
Air Defence Ground Environment System
Mr. Menzies Campbell : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence when he expects that the improved United Kingdom air defence ground environment system will be fully implemented ; and what is the total cost of implementing it.
Mr. Alan Clark : We expect that the IUKADGE will be fully operational in the early 1990s. The estimated cost of the complete programme at current prices is £500 million.
Procurement
Mr. Kirkwood : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will publish the details of all procurement projects on which money has been spent in the last five years, but which have not directly resulted in equipment being adopted by the armed services.
Mr. Alan Clark : The information requested could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
ROF, Blackburn
Mr. Straw : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what steps he has taken to ensure that the arrangements for the physical security of the royal ordnance factory in Blackburn are sufficient to protect the work carried out on Ministry of Defence contracts.
Mr. Neubert : As stated in paragraph 22 of Cm. 9422, the Ministry of Defence continues to monitor security arrangements at all Royal Ordnance plc's factories, including Blackburn. For reasons of security I am not prepared to give details of those arrangements.
Parliamentary Questions
Mr. Fisher : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what was the cost to his Department of answering parliamentary (a) oral and (b) written questions in the parliamentary Session 1988-89.
Mr. Archie Hamilton : No record is kept of the cost of answering parliamentary questions.
Mr. Fisher : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many (a) oral and (b) written questions were asked of his Department in 1988-89.
Mr. Archie Hamilton : The information requested is not held centrally. However, an approximate record is available in the House of Commons Library.
Mr. Fisher : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many written parliamentary questions he refused to answer in the parliamentary Session 1988-89.
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Mr. Fisher : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many written parliamentary questions to him in Session 1988-89 received answers that the information (a) was not available, (b) was not separately recorded, (c) was not centrally recorded, (d) was not recorded in Government statistics or (e) could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Mr. Archie Hamilton : The information requested could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Statistics
Mr. Fisher : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether his Department has discontinued (a) the collection or (b) the publication of any statistics since 1979.
Mr. Archie Hamilton : I refer the hon. Gentleman to the answer given to the hon. Member for Oldham, West (Mr. Meacher) on 10 December 1986 at columns 206-7.
In 1987, two tables were discontinued in volume II of the Statement on the Defence Estimates, concerning student numbers in selected service colleges and information about service children's education. In volume II of the 1988 Statement on the Defence Estimates, data about the activities of the Meteorological Office were discontinued. Very little information is collected by the Ministry of Defence purely for statistical publications ; most of the data which are published are based on internal administrative records. There has been no significant reduction in the collection of statistics since 1979.
Chemical Weapons
Mr. Flynn : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if, following the decision of the United States Defence Intelligence Agency to reduce its estimate of the Soviet Union stockpile of chemical weapon agent from 300,000 tonnes to less than 75,000 tonnes, he will make it his policy to review Her Majesty's Government's own assessment of this data ; and if he will publish any resulting revision in the estimate in the Official Report.
Mr. Archie Hamilton : The Government's position regarding the size of Soviet stocks of chemical weapons remains as expressed in paragraphs 219 -220 of the Statement on Defence Estimates 1989 (Cm. 675-I).
Loan Service Personnel
Mr. O'Neill : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence (1), pursuant to his answer of 7 November, Official Report, column 542, what were the ranks of those service personnel who served on loan or secondment in Chile in 1986 ;
(2), pursuant to his answer of 7 November, Official Report, column 542, what are the numbers and ranks of those service personnel currently on loan or secondment in the Sudan.
Mr. Archie Hamilton : Specific details about personnel serving on loan or secondment are generally in confidence between Her Majesty's Government and the Government of the country concerned.
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Mr. O'Neill : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to his answer of 7 November, Official Report, column 542, what are the ranks of those loan service personnel currently stationed in Belize.
Mr. Archie Hamilton : The information requested is as follows : Army
Two Lieutenant Colonels
Two Majors
Two Warrant Officers
Navy
One Commander
One Warrant Officer
One Chief Petty Officer
Air Force
One Squadron Leader
One Flight Lieutenant
One Chief Technician
This information updates that published in the eighth report of the House of Commons defence Committee (HC 624, Session 1987-88).
Honduras
Mr. O'Neill : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether any British service personnel have visited Honduras in an official capacity at any time in the last 10 years, excepting those personnel attached to the British embassy in Honduras.
Mr. Archie Hamilton : Official visits by military personnel to Honduras are infrequent and have recently included port visits by the survey ships HMS Beagle and Fawn in late 1988 and early 1989, and a visit by military pipers in October 1988 for a charity festival.
Pakistan
Mr. O'Neill : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether any British service personnel have visited Pakistan in an official capacity at any time in the last 10 years, excepting those personnel attached to the British embassy in Islamabad.
Mr. Archie Hamilton : There are a range of official military contacts between the United Kingdom and Pakistan. Over the last 10 years these have included short-term advisory visits, ship visits, and deployments for adventurous training. More recently, we have assisted the United Nations in providing training in mine clearance and mine awareness for Afghan refugees in Pakistan.
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HEALTH
Cytomegalovirus
Mr. Conway : To ask the Secretary of State for Health when he expects tests to be available within the Shropshire health authority area for the foetal disease cytomegalovirus.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : For any screening programme the benefits conferred by antenatal screening must clearly, outweigh any risks, such as diagnosing a foetus as infected or likely to be seriously handicapped when it is not. Studies of the pattern of cytomegalovirus infection in relation to pregnancy suggest that screening is not appropriate, since there is no drug treatment available at present and the risk that an infected mother will have a seriously handicapped baby is low.
I understand that in Shropshire a test is undertaken on newborn babies who show symptoms which may indicate that they have a virus. If the test indicates an abnormality, specimens are immediately sent to Manchester for further tests. Where necessary, babies are given the treatment they need without delay in Shropshire.
Unborn Children (Pain)
Mr. Alton : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what advice his Department gives about the earliest point in its development when an unborn child will experience pain.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : None. We are advised that reflex response to touch does not of itself indicate perception of pain, which depends on brain activity. Reflex responses have been demonstrated from around the seventh gestational week.
Abortion
Mr. Alton : To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many abortions are undertaken by prostaglandins and dilation and evacuation ; and at how many weeks' gestation these were undertaken.
Mr. Freeman : The information requested is shown in the table.
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Numbers of abortions, England and Wales, 1988<1> Performed to usual residents by all mentions of prostaglandins and all mentions of dilation and evacuation including dilation and curettage ------------------------------------------------------------------------- All mentions of prostaglandins |8,886|35 |387 |6,806|1,657|1 All mentions of dilation and evacuation including dilation and curettage |3,052|442 |692 |1,346|572 |- <1>Provisional. <2>Not stated.
Mr. Alton : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the numbers of doctors who undertake (a) more than 1,000, (b) more than 500 and (c) more than 100 abortions each year.
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Mr. Freeman : I regret that the information requested can be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Mr. Alton : To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to his reply of 1 November, Official Report, column 189-90, to the hon. Member for Liverpool,
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Mossley Hill, if he will now list each of the countries of origin contained in the subsections described as "Other European" and "Rest of the world".Mr. Freeman : The information requested is listed. Abortion data by the woman's country of origin are only given where the number of terminations exceeds 24.
Europe
Denmark and Greenland
East Germany
Finland
Greece
Hungary
Iceland
Netherlands
Norway and Sweden
Poland
Turkey
Yugoslavia
Rest of World
Argentina
Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay
Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland
Brazil
Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos and Philippines
Canada
China, Korea, Mongolia and Taiwan
Commonwealth Africa (nos)
Commonwealth Islands and Territories in South Atlantic/Antarctic Commonwealth Islands in Indian Ocean
Cyprus
Egypt
Ethiopia, Somalia, Afars and Issas
Foreign Africa (nos)
Foreign Caribbean
Foreign Central Africa
Foreign Countries/Asia and Islands/Pacific
Foreign West Africa (Muslim)
Gambia
Ghana
Guyana
Hong Kong
India
Iran
Iraq
Israel
Japan
Kenya
Mainland Central America
Malagasy Republic, Foreign Islands in Indian Ocean
Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei
Morocco
Mozambique
Namibia
New Zealand
Nigeria
Other Arab States
Other Commonwealth Countries and Islands in Pacific
Other Commonwealth Islands in Caribbean
Pakistan
Remainder Tropical South America
Sierra Leone
Sri Lanka
Sudan
Tanzania
Tunisia
Uganda
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
Zambia
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