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Further Education Lecturers
Sir David Steel : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will set up an independent review into the salaries of lecturing staff in further education colleges in Scotland.
Mr. Lang [holding answer 29 January 1993] : I have no plans to do so.
DEFENCE
Standing Orders
Ms Corston : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if it is a chargeable offence for serving members of the armed forces (a) to be in breach of unit standing orders and (b) not to have read unit standing orders.
Mr. Archie Hamilton : It is a chargeable offence under service law to fail to comply with any provision of unit standing orders of which the person concerned knew or might reasonably be expected to have known. Unless the unit standing orders in question themselves provided that they were to be read by the person concerned, or that there was a requirement to do so in some other orders, failure to read unit standing orders would not in itself be an offence but would provide no defence for failing to comply with them.
Ms Corston : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence by what means unit standing orders are made accessible to all ranks serving in the armed forces.
Mr. Archie Hamilton : Service personnel are required to acquaint themselves with standing orders which are prominently displayed within units on notice boards, in messes and such other suitable places as the commanding officer may direct.
Yugoslavia
Mr. Home Robertson : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will designate the deployment of British forces with the United protection force in former Yugoslavia as an operational deployment.
Mr. Archie Hamilton : British forces serving with the United Nations in the former Yugoslavia are deployed operationally. No advantage is seen in, or would attach to, a formal declaration of their status in the circumstances currently applying there.
Bosnia
Mr. Home Robertson : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will take steps to improve the availability of telephones to service men in Bosnia to contact their families.
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Mr. Archie Hamilton : We attach a high priority to ensuring that service personnel are able to keep in contact with their families in the United Kingdom and elsewhere, including by telephone. The provision of telephone facilities in Bosnia for welfare calls depends to an extent on where service personnel are deployed and whether civilian facilities exist. We have recently increased the availability of military satellite links for welfare calls where civilian facilities are not available. The present arrangements are believed to be adequate, given the operational circumstances. The situation, however, remains under review.
Mr. Home Robertson : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what assessment he has made of the sleeping accommodation which has been used by the 200 REME personnel at Vitez, Bosnia, since November 1992 ; how many toilets and showers are available for those soldiers ; and if he will make a statement on the delay in commissioning the purpose-made accommodation units on an adjacent site.
Mr. Archie Hamilton : A total of 98 REME personnel and a mixture of 182 other troops from 1 Cheshire, national support element and 1 Cheshire light aid detachment live and work at the site known as Vitez garage. At Vitez garage there are four European lavatories, four urinals and two showers. The showers run with hot water 24 hours a day. There are plans to build a further 13 toilets, nine urinals and 10 showers in purpose-built units which are on site but have yet to be commissioned. Additional ablution facilities are available at the Vitez school site 2.5 kms away. The delay in installing 35 four-man purpose-built accommodation units at the Vitez garage site resulted from a revision of engineer priorities towards base hardening following the shelling of Tomislavgrad ; long procurement lead times, both in the United Kingdom and Croatia, for units, electrical switchgear and wiring ; and adverse weather conditions with permafrost, ice, snow and low temperatures ( 30 degrees Celsius) delaying site preparations.
Army Pay
Mr. Home Robertson : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will publish an indicative table showing the approximate net weekly pay of a lieutenant, a sergeant and a private soldier serving in (a) the United Kingdom, (b) Germany and (c) former Yugoslavia.
Mr. Archie Hamilton : Rates of basic pay are not dependent upon location of deployment. It makes no difference whether a soldier is serving in the United Kingdom, Germany or the former Yugoslavia. The following are approximate weekly net rates of pay for the stated ranks :
|£
---------------------------------
Lieutenant after 4 years |268
Private 1 Band 2 Scale B |177
Sergeant Band 5 Scale B |263
These illustrative net rates apply to married personnel and do not take account of deductions made for food and accommodation charges which do vary depending on a whole range of factors including the servicemen's rank, marital status and the type and size of service
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accommodation occupied. Food and accommodation charges have been waived in the former Yugoslavia in recognition of the conditions under which personnel are serving there.HMS Andromeda
Mr. Jamieson : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence where the last refit of HMS Andromeda was carried out ; and what it cost.
Mr. Aitken : The last refit of HMS Andromeda was carried out at Rosyth royal dockyard. The final cost certificate has not yet been cleared but the total cost is estimated to be about £30 million.
Mr. Jamieson : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence when HMS Andromeda is due to be retired from the fleet.
Mr. Aitken : It is not our practice to discuss pay-off dates for individual vessels.
Mr. Jamieson : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence when the last refit of HMS Andromeda was carried out.
Mr. Aitken : Between August 1990 and December 1991.
HMS Sirius
Mr. Jamieson : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence why HMS Sirius has been retired from the fleet ahead of schedule.
Mr. Aitken : As announced by my right hon. Friend the then Secretary of State for Defence on 25 July 1990, at column 469 , we are moving towards a future destroyer/frigate force of around 40 ships. In order to do this we are paying off the older, more manpower intensive vessels such as the Leander class frigates, and introducing modern, more capable vessels such as the type 23 frigates. As part of this process HMS Sirius, at 27 the oldest of the remaining Leander class frigates, was recently retired from service.
Mr. Jamieson : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what was the total cost of refitting HMS Sirius at Devonport dockyard in 1991.
Mr. Aitken : About £25 million at current prices.
Mr. Jamieson : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence between which dates the refit of HMS Sirius was carried out at Devonport dockyard.
Mr. Aitken : Between October 1989 and May 1991.
HMS Challenger
Mr. Jamieson : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence when HMS Challenger last underwent a refit.
Mr. Aitken : HMS Challenger has never undergone a refit. Its last repair period was for docking and essential defects during the period April 1990 to July 1990.
Mr. Jamieson : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence where the most recent refit of HMS Challenger was carried out ; and what it cost.
Mr. Aitken : HMS Challenger has never undergone a refit.
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Mr. Jamieson : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what plans he has for HMS Challenger in the future.
Mr. Aitken : HMS Challenger has no further operational role in the Royal Navy. Efforts to sell the ship continue.
Chipmunk Training
Mr. Jamieson : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what plans he has for the future of Chipmunk training at Plymouth airport ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Archie Hamilton : There are no plans to change the arrangements for carrying out Royal Navy flying training at Plymouth airport. The current contract for the management of this training will expire in March 1994 and a replacement contract is under negotiation.
Mr. Jamieson : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what is the total cost per annum of the Chipmunk training at Plymouth airport.
Mr. Archie Hamilton : The estimated annual cost of Chipmunk training at Plymouth airport is £640,000.
Eurofighter 2000
Mr. Foulkes : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what plans he has to reconfigure the development programme of Eurofighter 2000.
Mr. Aitken : The development programme for Eurofighter 2000 is now being revised to reflect the decisions taken at the quadripartite ministerial meeting on 10 December 1992. First deliveries of production aircraft to the Royal Air Force will be delayed until 2000, and the development programme and associated expenditure will be slowed down, to the maximum extent possible without increasing overall costs and risk, to match this timescale. While the key performance parameters of the aircraft will not be changed, the partner nations are reviewing with the manufacturers the list of possible changes to the aircraft's equipment fit, and changes to the operational requirement, which emerged from the two studies conducted last year. It will be for each nation to decide the extent to which such changes to the aircraft specification are compatible with its military requirements, and if it wishes to take advantage of the cost savings which they offer. These decisions will be reflected in the revised programme and amendments to the inter-government memorandum of understanding which, it is planned, should be signed in the second half of this year.
Correspondence
Sir John Hannam : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence when he expects to reply to letters to him from the hon. Member for Exeter sent on 25 January, 3 February and 9 February concerning the choice of Glasgow for the site of the new Army personnel office.
Mr Archie Hamilton : I wrote to the hon. Member on 23 February.
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