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DEFENCE

Departmental Staff

Ms Roseanna Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many staff are employed in Scotland (a) by his Department and (b) by executive agencies responsible to his Department; where these staff are located; and how many staff are employed in (i) England, (ii) London and the South East, (iii) Wales, (iv) Northern Ireland and (v) United Kingdom in total. [90564]

Mr. Spellar [holding answer 13 July 1999]: The MOD employed 23,220 civilian and military staff in Scotland as at 1 April 1998, of which 8,527 staff were employed by executive agencies at that date. These staffs were employed in the following numbers at the locations listed:

Location	Number
Aberdeen	43
Aberdeenshire	495
Angus	1,107
Argyll and Bute	6,709
Dumfries and Galloway	67
Edinburgh	1,490
Falkirk	4
Fife	2,639
Glasgow	2,666
Highland	767
Inverclyde	32
Midlothian	212
Moray	4,458
North Ayrshire	641
North Lanarkshire	8
Perthshire and Kinross	544
Renfrewshire	108
Shetland Islands	194
South Ayrshire	461
South Lanarkshire	7
Stirling	386
Western Isles	182
Total	23,220

The information in relation to the other locations as at 1 April 1998 is as follows:

Location	Number
England	219,023
London and the South East	97,336
Wales	9,636
Northern Ireland	17,670
United Kingdom	269,549

Married Quarters

Mr. Key: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list (a) the number of married quarters, (b) the number empty and (c) the vacancy rate as a percentage in each year since 1992. [90629]

Mr. Spellar [pursuant to his reply, 14 July 1999, c. 226-27]: I regret to inform the hon. Gentleman that there was an error in the information given. The inception date for the Defence Housing Executive should read 1995 not 1985.

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Low Flying Aircraft

Mr. Alan W. Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many sorties were conducted by service low flying aircraft (a) over Wales and (b) over mainland Britain in each of the years 1990 to the present. [91476]

Mr. Spellar: The information is not held in the precise form requested. Military low flying activity is recorded by Low Flying Areas (LFA) and number of movements. LFA 7 covers all of Wales apart from a small area in the north-east of Powys. The annual number of day movements within LFA 7 since 1990 is shown in the table, along with the number of movements booked in the UK Low Flying System as a whole.

Year in UKLFS(7)	Day movements(6) in LFA 7	Day movements
1990	265,155	30,218
1991	215,391	23,795
1992	240,477	26,668
1993	207,808	22,348
1994	184,515	18,801
1995	182,516	18,020
1996	162,903	16,953
1997	156,781	15,649
1998	140,153	14,390

(6) A movement is recorded each time an aircraft crosses an LFA boundary and a low flying sortie will often be made up of a number of movements

(7) The UK Low Flying System covers the whole of the country, including both mainland Britain and the various islands

Environmental Programmes

Mr. Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what percentage of neon light tubing is currently recycled by his Department. [88443]

Mr. Spellar: My Department does not have any significant uses of neon light tubing, but the MOD Disposal Sales Agency (DSA) has set up a recycling scheme across government Departments for fluorescent light tubing in conjunction with the waste companies Biffa Ltd. and Mercury Recycling Ltd. DSA take every opportunity to encourage tube recycling and are planning to widen the scheme to include different designs of tubing. Within MOD, existing disposal contracts are considered for the recycling scheme as and when they come up for renewal.

Aircraft Carriers

Mr. Ottaway: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what shipyards in the United Kingdom have the capacity to construct the proposed new aircraft carriers. [90938]

Mr. Spellar: The size of the new aircraft carriers is currently estimated to be up to 40,000 tonnes. On this basis the UK shipyards with sufficient capacity to construct the vessels are: Harland and Wolff; Kvaerner Govan: Marconi Marine (VSEL) Ltd, Cammell Laird and Swan Hunter. Depending on the design selected there may be a need for these facilities to be enhanced.

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CULTURE, MEDIA AND SPORT

World Class Performance Programme

Mr. Spring: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many athletes and in which sports have benefited from the World Class Performance Programme. [90608]

Mr. Banks: The World Class Performance Programme at England and UK level is administered by Sport England and UK Sport whose records indicate that the number of England and UK athletes who have benefited from the World Class Programme is as follows:

England and UK athletes who have benefited from the World Class Performance Programme

Sport	Number of athletes
Athletics	418
Badminton	85
Bobsleigh	6
Boxing	13
Canoeing	107
Cricket	18
Cycling	106
Equestrian	50
Golf	16
Gymnastics	165
Hockey	103
Ice Skating	64
Judo	61
Karate	34
Modern Pentathlon	25
Netball	97
Orienteering	32
Rowing	192
Rugby Union	49
Sailing	87
Shooting	20
Skiing	3
Squash	106
Swimming	206
Table Tennis	45
Ten Pin Bowling	4
Triathlon	18
Water Skiing	22
Weightlifting	10
Wheelchair Basketball	20
Total	2,182

TRADE AND INDUSTRY

Power Stations

Mr. Wyatt: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry when he will announce his decision on Baglan Cogeneration Ltd.'s application to build a new combined cycle gas turbine power station at Baglan Bay, South Wales. [92027]

Mr. Battle: I have today granted consent under Section 36 of the Electricity Act 1989 to Baglan Cogeneration for the construction of a 500 MW combined cycle gas turbine power station at the BP Chemicals site at Baglan Bay, Port Talbot in South Wales. I have also deemed planning permission to be granted subject to 44 planning conditions agreed with the Neath Port Talbot County Borough

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Council. The reasons why there were no energy policy objections to the proposal were given in the decision letter of 7 April 1999.

Copies of the Press Notice and the Section 36 decision letter are being placed in the Library.

Mr. White: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he is yet in a position to make his decision on Eastern Generation Ltd.'s application for the Drakelow C coal-fired power station to be dual-fired by gas. [92026]

Mr. Battle: I have today granted consent under Section 36 of the Electricity Act 1989 to Eastern Generation Ltd. for the conversion of Drakelow C coal-fired power station to allow it to be dual fired by gas.

I have taken into account the arguments for and against the conversion. I concluded that as long as strict conditions were attached to the consent, then the benefits of the conversion, such as extending the life of the power station and thereby protecting jobs, outweighed the disadvantages. I also consider planning permission to be granted, subject to five planning conditions agreed with South Derbyshire District Council.

This decision has been taken in line with the policy set out in the White Paper entitled "Conclusions of the Review of Energy Sources for Power Generation and Government Response to Fourth and Fifth Reports of the Trade and Industry Committee" (Cm 4071).

Copies of the Press Notice and decision letter are being placed in the Library.

Mr. Key: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry following his announcement of a stricter power station consents policy for a limited period while other reforms of the electricity market are put in place, what criteria must be met before he will relax the policy; and when he will carry this out. [91573]

Mr. Battle: It is the expectation that the stricter power station consents policy will be relaxed as soon as the Government conclude that their programme of reform of the electricity market is substantially complete and the distortions identified in the White Paper (cm 4071) have been removed.

Single Currency

Mrs. Browning: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how much expenditure his Department (a) has incurred to date and (b) expects to incur in the future on preparations for possible United Kingdom entry into the European single currency; and if he will make a statement. [91421]

Mr. Byers [holding answer 15 July 1999]: Following the publication of the Government's Outline National Changeover Plan, my Department is considering what preparations may be necessary.

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