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Public Bills
Mr. Austin:
To ask the President of the Council (1) if she will make a statement on her plans for extending to public bills the procedure whereby private or hybrid bills may be carried over to the next session of Parliament; [98434]
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(3) what assessment she has made of the advantages and disadvantages of carrying over public bills from one session of Parliament to another; and if she will make a statement. [98436]
Mrs. Beckett:
I shall write to my hon. Friend as soon as possible.
Mr. Fisher:
To ask the President of the Council if she will make a statement about the implementation of paragraph (5) of the new clause in Lords Amendment No. 1 to the House of Lords Bill; and if she will specify the standing order referred to in that clause. [98423]
Mrs. Beckett:
I shall write to my hon. Friend as soon as possible.
(2) if she will make a statement on the constitutional implications of carrying over public bills from one session of Parliament to another; [98435]
Bilderberg Conference
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence (1) if his Office has retained copies of (a) the agenda and (b) other documentation resulting from the Turnberry Bilderberg meeting; [94142]
- (2) if he will make a statement on his contribution to the Bilderberg Conference at Turnberry. [94137]
Mr. Hoon: I will write to the hon. Member and a copy of my letter will be placed in the Library of the House.
Oral Statements
Mr. Mackinlay: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list (a) the reports published by his Department and its associated bodies, (b) the reports received from bodies set up by his Department, (c) the decisions his Department has taken and (d) events in the UK and elsewhere, since 27 July, which satisfied the criteria he uses for deciding whether to apply to make oral statements to the House when the House is sitting. [93973]
Mr. Spellar: I will write to my hon. Friend and a copy of my letter will be placed in the Library of the House.
School of Electrical and Mechanical Engineers
Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what assessment he has made of the quality of the training provided to recruits from the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers at the School of Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, Borden; and if he will make a statement. [95673]
Mr. Spellar: I will write to my hon. Friend and a copy of my letter will be placed in the Library of the House.
Maria Eagle:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence in respect of training of recruits at the School of Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, Borden (a) how many recruits are waiting for their courses to start and (b) how many have had their training suspended prior to completion and at what cost to his Department. [95674]
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Mr. Spellar:
I will write to my hon. Friend and a copy of my letter will be placed in the Library of the House.
Jackie Ballard:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many staff employed by his Department in mobile grades who do not have limited mobility are currently on (a) gardening leave and (b) special paid leave; and for what periods of time. [96883]
Mr. Spellar:
I will write to the hon. Member and a copy of my letter will be placed in the Library of the House.
Mr. Don Foster:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list all performance targets set for his Department, agencies and non-departmental public bodies since May 1997, other than those listed in Public Service Agreements 1999-2002 [Cm 4181], stating in each case (a) the target to be reached and (b) the date by which it was to be reached. [94981]
Mr. Spellar
[holding answer 1 November 1999]: My Department has set out the key performance targets on which it will be judged in its Public Service Agreement (PSA), and the measures of success it will use in the Output and Performance Analyses (OPA) published in March this year. These high-level targets are set out in an internal classified Departmental Plan and are cascaded through the Department down a hierarchy of subordinate Plans for each Service and for each subordinate budgetary unit; these lower level plans include additional and more detailed targets to supplement and amplify PSA targets. Listing these operational targets would be inappropriate and disproportionate in terms of resources.
A list of targets and target dates for Agencies up to March 1999 can be found in the Next Steps Report. Since March this year, key targets for individual Defence Agencies for 1999-2000 have been announced to Parliament. I shall write to the hon. Member with the details.
Performance targets and objectives have been set, or are in the process of being set, for those executive Non-Departmental Public Bodies for which my Department is responsible. Where targets have already been agreed, they are published in the respective Body's plans.
Mr. Keetch:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what is the estimated cost of the Adjutant General's Army Retention Study being undertaken by the Hay Management Group. [96835]
Mr. Spellar:
I will write to the hon. Member and a copy of my letter will be placed in the Library of the House.
Mr. Hancock:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence when he expects the multi-role armoured vehicle to enter service; and if he will make a statement. [97107]
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Mr. Kilfoyle:
I will write to the hon. Member and a copy of my letter will be placed in the Library of the House.
Mr. Wigley:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what representations he has received calling for the United Kingdom's nuclear forces no longer to be in a state of continuous alert; and if he will make a statement. [97129]
Mr. Hoon:
We have received a number of representations from organisations and members of the public about our nuclear deterrent, including its alert status. The Strategic Defence Review (SDR) announced that submarines on patrol are at a reduced day-to-day alert state reflecting improved strategic conditions. We maintain only one submarine on patrol at a time, its missiles are not targeted and are at several days "notice to fire". We also considered other more radical de-alerting measures in the SDR, such as taking submarines off deterrent patrol and removing warheads from their missiles and storing them separately ashore. We concluded that neither, in current circumstances, is compatible with maintaining a credible minimum deterrent with a submarine-based nuclear system.
Mr. Crausby:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what plans he has to introduce a common pay scale for the armed forces. [97354]
Mr. Spellar:
I will write to my hon. Friend and a copy of my letter will be placed in the Library of the House.
Mr. Davidson:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the current figure is for slippage in respect of the landing platform docks; what the expected date of delivery is for each vessel, taking into account present slippage; what the expected date of delivery is, taking into account recovery of slippage; and if he will make a statement. [97753]
Mr. Kilfoyle:
I will write to my hon. Friend and a copy of my letter will be placed in the Library of the House.
Mr. Key:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what assessment he has made of the impact of work carried out at his Department's establishment at Nancekuke in Cornwall on the health of the local population. [97645]
Mr. Kilfoyle:
The establishment at Nancekuke, now RAF Portreath, was known as the Process and Research Division of the Chemical Experimental Establishment, Porton Down, from 1951 until it was closed in 1980 and the site returned to the RAF.
The Chemical and Biological Defence Sector of the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency is now aware of any assessment of the health of the local population. However, a report in 1970 by the Registrar General showed that, up to 1969, the mortality of persons who
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had been employed at Nancekuke was rather less than the average for England and Wales as a whole, possibly due to regional differences in climate and social conditions.
Mr. Page:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he has received binding assurances that all relevant technologies and source codes would be transferred to the United Kingdom if it acquired a United States BVRAAM. [97711]
Mr. Hoon:
Assurances concerning the necessary transfer of relevant technologies and source code are the subject of discussions with Raytheon Systems Limited and the United States Department of Defense. Should the UK choose a US solution to its BVRAAM competition, the conclusion of these discussions would be incorporated in a contract with Raytheon and in a Memorandum of Understanding with the United States Department of Defense.
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