House of Commons Hansard Debates for 21 Jan 1992

Mr. Meale : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether licences given to fox hunts to hunt on Ministry of Defence land make any specific reference to (a) the digging out of foxes, (b) the blocking up of badger setts or (c) badgers.

Mr. Archie Hamilton : No. MOD licences do stipulate, however, that the licensed activity must be conducted within the law and in accordance with any regulations or codes of good conduct.

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Mr. Meale : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence under what conditions a licence given to a fox hunt to hunt on Ministry of Defence land would be revoked.

Mr. Archie Hamilton : Failure of a fox hunt to comply with the terms of the licence granted or any MOD regulations would be sufficient grounds on which to revoke the licence.

Mr. Meale : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what information he has on the number of Army horses transported to hunting meets in (a) 1990 and (b) 1991.

Mr. Archie Hamilton : Four hundred Army horses were transported to participate in hunting meets in 1990 and 323 in 1991. These figures count separately horses taken to more than one meet.

RAF Property

Mr. Rogers : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will publish his Department's financial assessment of the re-sale values of RAF Brawdy and RAF Chivenor.

Mr. Archie Hamilton : No. The information is commercial in confidence.

Mr. Soley : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will enter into a management agreement with a housing association or local authority on the empty properties situated on the Bryn Trewan estate at RAF Valley, to use them for rented accommodation.

Mr. Archie Hamilton : No. These surplus properties are currently being offered for sale in bulk on the open market by competitive tender.

Mr. Soley : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many properties on the Bryn Trewan estate at RAF Valley belonging to his Department are empty ; for what period of time they have been empty ; and whether he will make a statement.

Mr. Archie Hamilton : There are 60 vacant married quarters in the Bryn Trewan area of RAF Valley. The majority of these have been vacant for between one and two years.

Falklands

Sir Thomas Arnold : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many British service men are serving currently in the Falklands ; and how long is the average tour of duty.

Mr. Archie Hamilton : We maintain forces at the level necessary to meet our commitment to the defence of the Falklands. Details of these force levels are classified. Most service personnel in the Falklands serve on a four-month posting.

Nuclear Testing

Mr. Cohen : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence from which subheads of which votes the funds for the nuclear testing programme are taken.

Mr. Archie Hamilton : Funding in respect of the nuclear testing programme is provided from class 1, defence vote 2--defence procurement. It is not our practice to reveal further detail of the funding arrangements.

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Yellow Sun Weapons

Mr. Cohen : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement about the Yellow Sun family of weapons.

Mr. Alan Clark : I do not recognise the category to which the hon. Member refers.

Non-proliferation Treaty

Mr. Cryer : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to his oral reply to the hon. Member for Bradford, South, Official Report, 17 December, column 132, if he will state the obligations placed on the United Kingdom under the United Nations nuclear non-proliferation treaty.

Mr. Archie Hamilton : A copy of the non-proliferation treaty is available in the Library of the House.

Iran

Mr. Cryer : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what information he possesses about Iran's alleged build-up in arms and military equipment, including nuclear technology and know-how that can be put to military use.

Mr. Archie Hamilton : Iran has recently acquired new combat aircraft and surface to surface missiles and may be seeking new tanks. The Iranian navy is likely to obtain its first conventional submarine soon. Iran is a state party to the non-proliferation treaty and is pursuing a nuclear technology development programme, but has publicly denied that this is aimed at the acquisition of nuclear weapons. The United Kingdom has consistently made clear the significance which it attaches to all states party to the NPT complying fully with all their obligations.

Foreign Armed Services

Mr. Flynn : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will publish details of the training provided by his Department to personnel of foreign armed services from 1October 1987 to 1 October 1991.

Mr. Archie Hamilton : Training is provided in a variety of military subjects for personnel of foreign armed services. Details are generally confidential between Her Majesty's Government and the overseas government concerned.

Human Rights

Mr. Flynn : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will describe the scope of training in human rights that is included in training provided to personnel of foreign armed services.

Mr. Archie Hamilton : Human rights are addressed in courses available to foreign and United Kingdom military students where appropriate.

Rescue Operations, 22 Squadron

Mr. Menzies Campbell : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list the number of rescue operations carried out by 22 Squadron from RAF Leuchars in each of

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the last five years for which information is available ; and of these how many involved the rescue of service personnel and how many involved the rescue of civilians.

Mr. Archie Hamilton : The search and rescue operations carried out by 22 Squadron, based at RAF Leuchars, for the last 5 years are as follows :


Year      |Callouts |Total    |Civilians|Military           

                    |number   |rescued  |rescued            

                    |rescued                                

------------------------------------------------------------

1987      |113      |101      |75       |26                 

1988      |152      |138      |112      |26                 

1989      |133      |93       |78       |15                 

1990      |125      |65       |61       |4                  

1991      |162      |109      |104      |5

Mr. Menzies Campbell : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence (1) when members of 22 Squadron stationed at RAF Leuchars were informed that search- and-rescue operations at RAF Leuchars were to be discontinued from 1 October ;

(2) if he will make a statement about the future of

search-and-rescue operations at RAF Leuchars.

Mr. Archie Hamilton : No decision on the future of

search-and-rescue operations at RAF Leuchars has yet been taken.

RAF Leuchars

Mr. Menzies Campbell : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence (1) how many Wessex aircraft are presently deployed at RAF Leuchars ; and how many flying hours the individual aircraft have undergone ; (2) what is the current manpower strength of 22 Squadron stationed at RAF Leuchars.

Mr. Archie Hamilton : B flight 22 search and rescue squadron stationed at RAF Leuchars has 33 personnel. Two Wessex helicopters are currently deployed at RAF Leuchars. By 17 January 1992 one aircraft had flown 8,293 hours and the other 9,211 hours, since manufacture.

Mr. Menzies Campbell : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many rescues have been effected as a result of search-and-rescue operations from RAF Leuchars (a) in daylight hours and (b) after dusk having been commenced in daylight, since the restriction to daylight only working was imposed.

Mr. Archie Hamilton : From 1 October 1989, when the daylight working only restriction was imposed, to the end of 1991, RAF Leuchars responded to 308 callouts and 184 people were rescued. Of these, 11 were callouts which commenced in daylight but continued after dusk and nine people were rescued.

Sir Peter Levene

Mr. Morgan : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence on what date Sir Peter Levene left the employment of his Department.

Mr. Alan Clark : Sir Peter Levene's last day of service with my Department was 31 March 1991.

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Disability Compensation

Mr. John Browne : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will consider paying part compensation to those injured members of the armed forces whose claims are being withheld pending precise assessment and agreement as to the final level of their disability.

Mr. Archie Hamilton : The MOD already makes such interim payments.

Mr. John Browne : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list the claims now outstanding under the Crown Proceedings (Armed Forces) Act 1987, showing names, disability claimed and date of accident.

Mr. Archie Hamilton : No. To do so would be a breach of medical confidentiality.

Contract Employment

Mr. Douglas : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will give the current totals of those employed in his Department's contracts in the United Kingdom and the percentage of this figure for Scotland.

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Mr. Alan Clark : Estimates of regional employment arising from my Department's equipment expenditure are published in the "Statement on the Defence Estimates 1991, Volume 2," table 6.9, a copy of which is held in The House of Commons Library.

RAF Greenham Common

Sir Michael McNair-Wilson : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what discussions have taken place between himself and the Commander of the United States Air Force about the withdrawal of United States Air Force personnel from RAF Greenham Common this year ; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Archie Hamilton : We keep closely in touch with the United States authorities about plans for their forces stationed in the United Kingdom.

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