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Private Finance Initiative

Mr. Betts: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will provide for schemes so far agreed under the PFI the level of financing costs above the current cost of Government borrowing for the scheme with (a) the highest financing costs and (b) the lowest costs. [5718]

Mr. Arbuthnot: I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave to him on 7 November 1995, Official Report, column 666.

Mr. Betts: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will provide a breakdown of administration costs incurred to date and forecast for the future on PFI work. [5716]

Mr. Arbuthnot: I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave to the hon. Member for Warley, West (Mr. Spellar) on 22 November 1995, Official Report, column 175.

14 Dec 1995 : Column: 761

Mr. Betts: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will provide revenue forecasts for the current year and the next five years of expenditure on schemes provided under the PFI. [5717]

Mr. Arbuthnot: I refer the hon. Member to the replies I gave him on 22 November 1995, Official Report, column 666, and 7 December 1995, Official Report, column 343.

Porton Down

Mr. Nick Ainger: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what methods, other than experimentation on animals, have been used at Porton Down and elsewhere to test antidotes to chemical weapons. [5872]

Mr. Arbuthnot: This is a matter for the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency under its framework document. I have asked the chief executive, DERA, to write to the hon. Member.

Letter from John Chisholm to Mr. Nick Ainger, dated 14 December 1995:

Your Parliamentary Question to the Secretary of State for Defence asking what methods other than experimentation on animals have been used at the Chemical and Biological Defence Establishment (CBDE), Porton Down to test antidotes to chemical weapons has been passed to me to reply as the Chief Executive of the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA) which now includes CBDE as one of its divisions.
CBDE continues to develop and use a range of in-vitro test systems for the identification and evaluation of medical countermeasures against chemical warfare agents. These systems include cell and tissue cultures, synthetic membranes and in-vitro diffusion systems.
The military acceptability of proposed medical counter measures is assessed in service volunteers.
I hope this information is helpful.

Dr. David Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if the chemical defence establishment at Porton Down filmed its LSD experiments on service volunteers during (a) Operation Recount, (b) Operation Small Change and (c) tests in the establishment's medical facilities. [5934]

Mr. Arbuthnot: This is a matter for the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency under its framework document. I have asked the chief executive, DERA, to write to the hon. Member.

Letter from John Chisholm to Dr. David Clark, dated 14 December 1995:

Your Parliamentary Question to the Secretary of State for Defence asking if the Chemical Defence Establishment at Porton Down filmed the LSD experiments on service volunteers during a) Operation Recount, b) Operation Small Change and c) tests in the Establishment's medical facilities has been passed to me to reply as the Chief Executive of the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA). The Chemical Defence Establishment has undergone a number of changes since the 1960s and is now known as the Chemical & Biological Defence Establishment (CBDE) which is a division of DERA.

Information held at CBDE suggests that some of these trials which, as you know were conducted about thirty years ago at Porton Down, were filmed. Unfortunately, in the time allowed to answer your question it has not been possible to recover the films and confirm this. I will write to you as soon as it has been possible to do so.
I am sorry I cannot be more positive on this occasion.

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Mr. Ainger: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many animals were used in experiments to test antidotes to chemical weapons in each of the last five years at (a) the Porton Down establishment and (b) elsewhere. [5873]

Mr. Arbuthnot: This is a matter for the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency under its framework document. I have asked the chief executive, DERA, to write to the hon. Member.

Letter from John Chisholm to Mr. Nick Ainger, dated 14 December 1995:

Your Parliamentary Question to the Secretary of State for Defence asking how many animals were used in experiments to test antidotes to chemical weapons in each of the last five years at a) Porton Down and b) elsewhere has been passed to me to reply as the Chief Executive of the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA) which includes CBDE as one of its divisions.
The number of animals used at the Chemical and Biological Defence Establishment, Porton Down in research programmes with the aim of evaluating medical countermeasures against chemical warfare agents for the last five years is detailed below;
1990: 8,106
1991: 4,964
1992: 2,822
1993: 2,498
1994: 1,597
No work is done elsewhere in the MoD using animals to test antidotes to chemical weapons.
I hope this information is helpful.

Public Opinion Surveys

Mr. Dobson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list all qualitative and quantitative research projects and surveys carried out for his Department into aspects of public attitudes and opinions (a) in general and (b) in relation to specific policy proposals in each of the past three years to December 1995, indicating for each project or survey (i) the date on which the research was commissioned, (ii) the amount which his Department spent, (iii) who carried out the research, (iv) the number of people surveyed or taking part, (v) the location and time scale and (vi) which individuals and organisations have been given access to the findings. [5989]

Mr. Soames: The information is as follows:

Date	Survey title	Commissioned by	Report due/done	Sample size
November 1992	ACIO Research	Army	February 1993	2,000
December 1992	Army Officer Creative Development Research	Army	February 1993	49
March 1993	Recruitment Advertising Strategy Research	RAF	June 1993	35
May 1993	Officer Advertising Creative Development Research	Army	June 1993	72
December 1993	NECL Creative Development Research	MOD	January 1994	10
December 1993	Soldier Slogan Research	Army	December 1993	Not known
February 1994	Advertising Strategy Development Research	RN	May 1994	120
March 1994	University Finalists Survey	MOD	July 1994	Not known
March 1994	NELC Research	MOD	June 1994	2,400
May 1994	Slogan Confirmation and Creative Development Research	Army	June 1994	118
June 1994	Army Recruitment Targeting Research	Army	July 1994	900
June 1994	Asians Language and Communication Survey	RN	July 1994	3,000
August 1994	NELC tracking-- Autumn 1994	MOD	November 1994	4,800
September 1994	Army Recruiting Advertising Tracking	Army	November 1994	2,000
November 1994	Potential Officers Career Literature	RAF	February 1995	250
December 1994	Army Tracking Stage 2	Army	April 1995	2,000
January 1995	The Recruitment of Ethnic Minorities into the Armed Forces	RAF	September 1995	5,000
February 1995	NELC Tracking-- Spring 1995	Army	May 1995	4,800
February 1995	Welbeck--Stage 2	Army	April 1995	400
February 1995	MORI Undergraduate Study	Army	May 1995	1,500
March 1995	Officers Commissions Research	Army	June 1995	300
March 1995	Research into the effectiveness of RNPT presentations and audience targeting strategy	RN	May 1995	1,200
April 1995	New Reserves Forces Legislation	MOD	August 1995	Not known
May 1995	Soldiers Creative Advertising Development Research	Army	June 1995	30
June 1995	Advertising Tracking-- Summer 1995	Army	July 1995	2,000
July 1995	Officer Advertising Creative Development Research	Army	August 1995	45
September 1995	Advertising Tracking-- October 1995	Army	October 1995	2,000
September 1995	Recruitment Conversion Rates	Army	November 1995	125
October 1995	Navy Advertising Strategy Review	RN	November 1995	50
October 1995	Soldier Recruitment Advertising Campaign	Army	November 1995	336
October 1995	Advertising Tracking-- November 1995	Army	November 1995	2,000
October 1995	TA Recruitment Advertising-- Communication Research	Army	December 1995	300
November 1995	RAF Marketing Review Research	RAF	December 1995	2,103

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The findings of the surveys are used for internal management purposes and are not normally available outside my Department. The costs of each survey and the identity of the individual companies are commercial in confidence.

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