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"Rail Travel for Disabled Passengers"

Mr. Lidington: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport when he expects that a new edition of the pamphlet, "Rail Travel for Disabled Passengers", covering the period after 1 June 1996 will be published. [29061]

Mr. Watts: The new edition of "Rail Travel for Disabled Passengers", covering the period from 2 June to 31 December 1996, will be published shortly and made available by 2 June.

14 May 1996 : Column: 399

DEFENCE

GEC Defence Projects

Mr. George: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what were (a) the out-turn prices and (b) the estimated prices at the time of Ministry of Defence approval, (c) the actual time and (d) the estimated time of completion in respect of each defence project valued at over £50 million undertaken for the Ministry of Defence since 1979 by GEC, where (i) GEC was the prime contractor and (ii) GEC was a member of a consortium with joint and several liability. [28639]

Mr. Arbuthnot: This information is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

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Cadet Forces

Ms Walley: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to his oral answer of 7 May, Official Report, columns 10-11, what were, in each of the last five years, the number of air training corps cadets, the resources made available for ATC cadet training and the flying time per cadet; and if he will make a statement as to the current planned provision of flying instruction. [28904]

Mr. Soames: The number of enrolled air training corps cadets and the resources made available for ATC training in the last five years is as follows:

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	1991-92	1992-93	1993-94	1994-95	1995-96
Number of enrolled air cadets	34,606	35,296	35,551	35,488	(6)34,861
ATC budget (cash costs) £ million	16.2	18.4	19.0	19.8	21.0

(6) Averaged over three quarters.

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The average cadet flying sortie in the last five years was some 29 minutes. Not all air cadets fly on an annual basis, while others take more than one flight. Under current planned provision for flying instruction, each air cadet will continue to have the opportunity to fly once a year.

Low Flying

Mr. Home Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many confirmed breaches of low flying regulations occurred at Caerlaverock in Dumfries and Galloway, in each of the last three years; how many of such breaches led to formal disciplinary proceedings; and what is being done to reduce the number of breaches in that area. [28714]

Mr. Soames: The numbers of breaches of the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust avoidance area at Caerlaverock confirmed by RAF police investigations in each of the last

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three years are as follows. One alleged breach in 1995 is still under investigation.

1993: 12
1994: 22
1995: 15.

In four of the incidents in 1994, the aircraft concerned were also found to have breached regulations by flying in low flying area 16 of the United Kingdom low flying system without proper authorisation.

Formal disciplinary action under the service discipline Acts has not, to date, been taken as a result of any of the breaches listed.

Measures have been taken to reduce the number of breaches of the avoidance area. The site has been granted permanent avoidance status, thereby ensuring that it is marked on navigation charts and aircraft moving map displays, and instructions have also been issued at senior level reminding air crew of the need to ensure observance of all avoidance areas, including Caerlaverock, and the possible consequences of not doing so.

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14 May 1996 : Column: 401

Tornado and Hercules Contracts

Mr. Spellar: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence when he expects to make a statement about the final cost to his Department of the contracts awarded to Airwork for the Tornado F3 and Hercules. [29225]

Mr. Arbuthnot: In respect of the work performed on Tornado F3 aircraft, my Department is continuing to pursue the claim which it has lodged against Bricom Group Ltd., the then owners of Airwork, to recover the costs of repairing damaged aircraft and the Departments' other consequential costs. It is not yet possible to say when a settlement will be reached.

The damage which occurred to Hercules aircraft during work undertaken by Airwork was rectified by Shorts--the new owners of Airwork--at their own expense. All the affected aircraft have been returned to RAF service.

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Manufacturing Projects

Mr. Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list the military defence manufacturing projects now taking place between member states of the Western European Union, indicating the value to the United Kingdom of each project. [28973]

Mr. Arbuthnot: I refer the hon. Member to table 10 on page 66 of the "Statement on the Defence Estimates 1996", which includes details of collaborative projects between the United Kingdom and other member states of the Western European Union. Apart from the projects that are in development and production, manufacturing work is still continuing to produce spares for equipment that is currently in service; the value to the United Kingdom of these projects could be provided only at disproportionate cost. However, the total costs of many of these projects are included in the "Major Projects Report 1994," a copy of which is in the Library of the House.

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Table 10: Collaborative projects involving the United Kingdom at 1 April 1996

Projects in production or in-service	Australia	Belgium	Canada	Denmark	France	Germany	Greece	Iceland
Naval Equipment
Sea Gnat Decoy System				*
NATO Ships Inertial Navigation System			*
Barra Sonobuoy	*
Land Equipment
FH70 Howitzer						*
M483A1 Artillery Shell
Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance (Tracked)
Multiple Launch Rocket System Phase I					*	*
Multiple Launch Rocket System Phase II
M3 Amphibious Bridging System						*
Missiles
Sidewinder Air-to-Air						*
Milan Anti-Tank (including improvements)					*	*
Air Systems
Jaguar					*
Lynx					*
Puma					*
Gazelle					*
Tornado					*
Harrier AV8B GR3 7						*
EH101 Merlin Helicopter
RTM322-Helicopter Engine					*
Joint Tactical Information Distribution System
Other Equipment
Navstar Global Positioning System (GPS)		*	*	*	*	*	*	*

Projects in Production or In-Service	Italy	Netherlands	Norway	Portugal	Spain	Turkey	USA
Naval equipment
Sea Gnat Decoy System							*
NATO Ships Inertial Navigation System		*			*
Barra Sonobuoy
Land equipment
FH70 Howitzer	*
M483A1 Artillery Shell		*				*	*
Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance (Tracked)
Multiple Launch Rocket System Phase I	*						*
Multiple Launch Rocket System Phase II
M3 Amphibious Bridging System
Missiles
Sidewinder Air-to-Air	*		*
Milan Anti-Tank (including improvements)
Air System
Jaguar
Lynx
Puma
Gazelle
Tornado	*
Harrier AV8B GR5/7							*
EH101 Merlin Helicopter	*
RTM322 Helicopter Engine
Joint Tactical Information Distribution System							*
Other equipment
Navstar Global Positioning System (GPS)	*	*	*	*	*	*	*

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Projects in the development phase	Australia	Belgium	Canada	Denmark	France	Germany	Greece	Iceland
Naval equipment
Intercooled Recuperated (ICR) Gas Turbine Engine
Land equipment
COBRA (Counter Battery Radar)					*	*
Aimed Control Effect Anti-Tank Mine					*	*
Missiles
Long range TRIGAT(Third Generation Anti-Tank Guided Weapon)					*	*
Medium range TRIGAT(Third Generation Anti-Tank Guided Weapon)		*			*	*
Air systems
Eurofighter						*
Other equipment
ADA Computer Language ProjectSupport Environment			*	*	*	*
Universal Modem for Satellite Communications
Allied Data Systems Interoperability Agency--NATO Procedural Interoperability Standards					*	*

14 May 1996 : Column: 403

Projects in the development phase	Italy	Netherlands	Norway	Portugal	Spain	Turkey	USA
Naval equipment
Intercooled Recuperated (ICR) Gas Turbine Engine							*
Land equipment
COBRA (Counter Battery Radar)
Aimed Control Effect Anti-Tank Mine
Missiles
Long range TRIGAT
Medium range TRIGAT(Third Generation Anti-Tank Guided Weapon)		*
Air systems
Eurofighter	*				*
Other equipment
ADA Computer Language ProjectSupport Environment	*	*	*		*		*
Universal Modem for Satellite Communications							*
Allied Data Systems Interoperability Agency--NATO Procedural Interoperability Standards		*	*		*		*

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