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Future Large Aircraft
Mr. Spellar: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what is the current position regarding Britain's membership of the future large aircraft project. [17435]
Mr. Arbuthnot: The United Kingdom has taken an active part in discussions on the future large aircraft project since the announcement by my right hon. and learned Friend the Foreign Secretary when Secretary of State for Defence in December 1994 and will be considering with the FLA partner nations the implications of recent French statements on FLA funding.
Bosnia
Mr. Wareing:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on the discovery by implementation forces of weapons in the neighbourhood of Sarajevo; what evidence has been found of complicity
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between the Bosnian Government and Iranians detained at the site of the discovery; and if the matter is being referred to the war crimes tribunal. [16294]
Mr. Soames:
On 15 February, IFOR raided a building near Fojnica in central Bosnia and seized weapons, ammunition, explosives and bomb-making equipment. Eleven people were arrested at the scene, including three Iranians. IFOR is continuing its investigation into the discovery, which is believed to constitute a violation of the peace agreement that prohibits the presence of foreign forces in Bosnia. The matter does not fall within the mandate of the international criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
Dr. Godman:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list the locations of Army careers information offices in Scotland; which of these are to remain open and for how long; and if he will make a statement. [17480]
Mr. Soames:
There are currently 18 Army careers information offices--ACIOs--in Scotland. Five of these are to become armed forces careers offices--AFCOs--during the next calendar year. These AFCOs will be manned and operated on a tri-service basis. A further nine ACIOs will become permanent Army satellite offices and provide support for the AFCOs. Additionally, four offices due for closure will remain open until April 1997. These four offices form part of the Army's recent review of its requirement for ACIOs as referred to in the Official Report, 20 February 1996, column 96. Locations of all the careers offices are shown in the table.
Armed forces careers offices
Aberdeen
Dundee
Edinburgh
Glasgow
Inverness.
Army satellite offices
Bathgate
Dumfries
Dunfermline
Galashiels
Glenrothes
Hamilton
Irvine
Perth
Stirling.
Short-term retained offices
Dumbarton
Elgin
Greenock
Wick.
Statistics (Gender Breakdown)
Ms Jowell: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what steps his Department is taking to collect statistics broken down by gender where relevant. [17679]
Mr. Arbuthnot:
The Ministry of Defence does not collect statistics from the general public, local authorities and business. Personnel information to assist the Ministry
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in running its business is compiled from the Ministry's administrative systems and from surveys of the armed forces and civilian personnel. All the data are available by gender, although not always published as such.
Mr. Madden:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what discussions (a) he and (b) his Ministers have had over the last five years concerning the sale by British Aerospace to India of Hawk 100 aircraft; and if he will make a statement. [18200]
Mr. Arbuthnot:
The Indian air force has a requirement for a number of advanced jet trainer aircraft. British Aerospace has offered a variant of the Hawk aircraft to meet that requirement. I discussed this with the Indian authorities during my recent visit. During the last five years, there have been a number of instances when Defence Ministers have had occasion to commend Hawk to the Indians.
Mr. Sumberg:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on the creation of the Defence Dental Agency. [18763]
Mr. Soames:
The Defence Dental Agency--DDA--will form up on 1 March 1996, when primary dental care currently provided on a single-service basis will be included within a tri-service agency under the control of a chief executive. The headquarters of the DDA will initially be based in London and its training functions will be undertaken at Aldershot and Halton. However, the majority of the agency's personnel will continue to be employed in dental clinics throughout the United Kingdom and overseas. The staff of the agency comprise 864 military and 179 civilian personnel.
Each service will continue to recruit to its own dental branch and to be responsible for issuing appointments and posting orders for personnel of their particular service into, within, and out of the agency after agreement with the chief executive, and for an agreed duration. It is expected that uniformed dental personnel will spend the major part of their career working within the agency.
The aim of the agency is to contribute to the operational effectiveness of the armed forces by achieving and maintaining, in the most cost-effective way, their dental fitness in war, operational situations other than war, and peace.
The chief executive will be afforded the responsibility and flexibility to build upon the professional ability and reputation for excellence of all three service dental branches. This will ensure that the MOD retains the capacity to deploy trained dental staff on military operations, retain close supervision of the dental fitness standards of service personnel, and maximise value for money in the delivery of dental treatment for service personnel in order to maintain their operational readiness during peacetime.
The chief executive has been set the following key targets for the first year of operation:
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Lady Olga Maitland:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on the creation of the Medical Supplies Agency. [18762]
Mr. Soames:
The defence medical supply organisation will become a defence agency of the Ministry of Defence, to be known as the Medical Supplies Agency--MSA--on 1 March 1996. The MSA will include the Army blood supply depot at Aldershot, the defence medical equipment depot at Ludgershall and 16 medical provisioning points located throughout the UK and overseas.
The MSA will remain part of the MOD, but the chief executive will have delegated executive powers to discharge his responsibilities. The agency will employ 65 military and 260 civilian staff. The location of the headquarters of the agency has yet to be confirmed, but will initially be at Ludgershall.
The aim of the agency is to ensure the most cost- effective and timely provision of medical, dental and veterinary material, blood and blood products, technical and logistic support and trained personnel to the UK armed forces in war, operations other than war, and peace.
The chief executive has been set the following key targets for the first year of operation:
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1. To achieve the number of professional militarily trained personnel required for deployment at the specified readiness to meet medical support plans for the national contingency force based on defence planning assumptions 96.
I have arranged for copies of the agency's framework document to be placed in the Library of both Houses.
2. To define and implement tri-service dental fitness for deployment standards, and introduce a system of coding and quantifying outstanding treatment needs by 31 March 1996; and to achieve the agreed dental fitness for deployment performance targets by 31 March 1997.
3. To identify a suitable clinical management information system and implement it at all DDA main locations.
4. To operate an interim accounting system and a revised feeder system in order to produce full-cost accrual-based accounts for the financial year 1996-97 for preliminary audit by the National Audit Office.
5. To achieve the agreed level of dental fitness for the forecast military population and provide treatment for dependants and entitled civilians overseas within budget; and to identify efficiency measures in the course of the financial year 1996-97 to meet a specific efficiency target for the financial year 1997-98.
1. To build, hold and maintain the agreed number of kits, outfits and associated items of equipment, as defined in endorsed equipment tables.
2. To meet 100 per cent. of operational deployment requirements to time.
3. To achieve efficiency savings of £4 million in the cash budget of the agency whilst maintaining a constant level of output.
4. By April 1997, to have a fully integrated tri-service structure in place.
5. To identify the minimum stock levels necessary for the agency and publish quantifiable stock reduction targets for the financial year 1997-98.
6. To design and implement the initial customer survey so as to establish a quantifiable baseline for measuring customer satisfaction.
7. To implement an accounting system to produce full-cost accruals based accounts for the financial year 1996-97 for preliminary audit by the National Audit Office.
I have arranged for copies of the agency's framework document to be placed in the Library of both Houses.
8. Successful implementation of the medical material management information system and production of a statement of requirement for the procurement of systems to meet the agency's MIS needs.
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