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DEFENCE

Civilian Employees

Mrs. Ewing: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many civilian employees of his Department there are at each individual forces base in Scotland. [22714]

Mr. Arbuthnot: I have placed a list in the Library of the House.

Parliamentary Questions

Mr. Donohoe: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many questions were tabled to his Department in each Session since 1987-88; how many were not answered on the grounds of disproportionate cost; what percentage of the total number of questions this represented; how many were not answered on the grounds that the information was not centrally available; and what percentage of the total number of questions this represented. [21147]

Mr. Soames: The Library of the House has provided the following information on the number of questions tabled to my Department for the relevant years.

	Written Questions	Oral Questions (including supplementaries)
1987-88	3,784	415
1988-89	3,415	367
1989-90	3,244	333
1990-91	2,390	275
1991-92	1,097	132
1992-93	3,623	385
1993-94	2,849	302
1994-95	3,580	276
1995-96	1,081	133

The other information requested is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Ridgewood Group of Companies

Mr. Jamieson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what departmental investigations have been (a) initiated and (b) completed by his Department into the Ridgewood group of companies; and if will publish his conclusions. [21182]

Mr. Arbuthnot [holding answer 18 March 1996]: Inquiries have been made within the Ministry of Defence to establish whether there are any departmental investigations into the Ridgewood group of companies; none are known to be current. Any in the past have been concluded satisfactorily and their conclusions will not be published.

Married Quarters

Mr. David Nicholson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what representations he has had from representatives of the building industry, the mortgage lenders and estate agents about the consequences for the English housing market of the sale of Ministry of Defence married quarters. [21383]

25 Mar 1996 : Column: 442

Mr. Arbuthnot: We have received no such representations on behalf of these groups.

Research Establishments

Mrs. Anne Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence which former public sector research establishments in his Department have been privatised since 1979; and which public sector research establishments in his Department are currently undergoing reviews with a view to placing them in the private sector. [21937]

Mr. Arbuthnot: No MOD research establishments have been privatised since 1979, and no such establishment is currently undergoing review for this purpose.

Decommissioned Submarines

Ms Rachel Squire: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on (a) the removal of decommissioned submarines from Rosyth royal dockyard and (b) the disposal and transportation of radioactive waste from the decommissioned submarines. [22099]

Mr. Arbuthnot: The Government's policy is that decommissioned nuclear submarines should be stored safely afloat at the location where they are decommissioned. This policy is kept under review. There are no current plans to remove these decommissioned submarines stored afloat at Rosyth royal dockyard. Radioactive waste produced during the decommissioning process is handled in accordance with current national legislation. There is no transportation of radioactive waste following decommissioning.

Tornado Crews (Training)

Dr. David Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list the average air crew flying training hours for Tornado aircraft in each of the last five years. [21884]

Mr. Soames [holding answer 21 March 1996]: The monthly average Tornado air crew flying training hours for each of the last five years are as follows:

Financial year	Tornado F3	Tornado GR1
1991-92	17 hours 45 minutes	17 hours 45 minutes
1992-93	18 hours 55 minutes	16 hours 50 minutes
1993-94	15 hours 45 minutes	15 hours 35 minutes
1994-95	14 hours 30 minutes	16 hours 45 minutes
1995-96	13 hours 55 minutes	13 hours 25 minutes

The figures shown exclude operational flying in support of the Iraq no-fly zone and UN-NATO operations in Bosnia, in which the Tornado F3 has been involved since April 1993 and the Tornado GR1 to varying degrees throughout the period. Such flying includes an element of continuation training. The figures for 1995-96 are the monthly average up to and including January 1996.

25 Mar 1996 : Column: 443

Service Strength

Dr. David Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what is his Department's estimate of the strength of (a) the RAF, (b) the Army and (c) the Royal Navy by the end of the decade. [21883]

Mr. Soames [holding answer 21 March 1996]: The estimated strengths for the services at 1 April 1999 are as follows:

(a) Royal Air Force: 55,500
(b) Army: 114,000
(c) Royal Navy: 44,000

The Army estimate includes Gurkha strengths, but excludes the Royal Irish Regiment--home service force. The Royal Navy estimate includes the Royal Marines and Queen Alexandra's Royal Naval Nursing Service. All the figures include an element for personnel undergoing training.

Equal Opportunities

Mr. David Shaw: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what amounts of money have been paid out by (a) his Department and (b) executive agencies, non-departmental public bodies and other organisations for which he is accountable to Parliament, to how many staff or former staff in respect of (i) alleged equal opportunities breaches which do not proceed to tribunal or courts and (ii) equal opportunities breaches which proceeded to tribunals or courts in (1) the current year and (2) the two previous years. [22514]

Mr. Soames: The handling of civilian equal opportunities cases has been delegated to budget holders and agencies. Details of amounts paid and numbers of cases are not all readily available centrally. Information is however available on six cases over the past few years, for which the average payment was about £7,500.

For service personnel, the great majority of such payments relate to compensation for those dismissed on the ground of pregnancy before the services introduced maternity leave in 1990. An average of about £10,000 has been paid to each of 4,615 cases which did not proceed to tribunals, and about £30,000 to each of 320 cases which proceeded to tribunal. Most of this expenditure was made in 1994-95. On service cases other than pregnancy dismissal, not all details are available in the form requested but an average of about £7,000 has been paid in each of about 60 cases, of which three proceeded to tribunal.

HMY Britannia

Mr. Cohen: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what are the annual running costs for HMY Britannia; and from which subheads of which votes these funds are taken. [22409]

Mr. Soames: The estimated total operating costs of HMY Britannia for the financial year 1995-96 are £8,933,000. Provision for this expenditure is currently made in class I, vote 1, subheads A1 and F1 and in class I, vote 2, subheads A1 and A2.

25 Mar 1996 : Column: 444

Mr. Cohen: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what studies his Department is carrying out into the replacement of HMY Britannia; what has been the cost of these studies to date; and what is the estimated cost of a replacement for HMY Britannia. [22408]

Mr. Arbuthnot: The possible replacement of HMY Britannia, together with other options for meeting the tasks she presently fulfils, is being examined by an interdepartmental working group. The main cost of this work, which has been confined to a small proportion of the salaries of the officials involved, has not been collected centrally and could not be estimated without disproportionate effort. The cost of any replacement would depend entirely on its design and role.

Mr. Gill: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what is the average daily cost of crewing HMY Britannia (a) with and (b) without the royal family embarked. [22824]

Mr. Soames: In the current financial year, the present estimated average daily cost of crewing HMY Britannia is about £16,000. The presence, or absence, on board of members of the royal family does not affect crewing levels.

Mr. Gill: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what is the daily running cost, excluding maintenance and refitting, of HMY Britannia (a) in harbour and (b) at sea with and without the royal family embarked. [22825]

Mr. Soames: This information is not available in the form requested. In the current financial year, however, the present estimated daily total operating costs of HMY Britannia are about £21,000, excluding repair and refit.

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