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DEFENCE

Weapons of Mass Destruction

2. Mr. Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what recent assessment has been made by his Department of the threat to the United Kingdom from (a) nuclear, (b) biological and (c) chemical weapon attack. [117880]

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Mr. Hoon: As of today, our assessment is that there is no current significant threat to the UK from weapons of mass destruction. Obviously, however, we continue to monitor developments closely in conjunction with our Allies.

Royal Navy Ship Orders

24. Dr. Godman: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence when he last met management and trade union representatives from the shipbuilding industry to discuss the placing of contracts for the construction of vessels required by the Royal Navy. [117904]

Dr. Moonie: My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Defence and my noble Friend the Minister of State for Defence Procurement have met both management and trade union representatives from the shipbuilding industry within the last two weeks.

Mr. Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence when he will announce the next round of orders of ships for the Royal Navy. [117899]

Mr. Hoon: We hope to be in a position to announce a preferred bidder to meet our long-term strategic sealift requirement later this year. We also expect to place contracts for Survey Vessels during the summer, for Demonstration and First of Class Manufacture of the new Type 45 Anti-Air Warfare Destroyer in the autumn, and for the Alternative Landing Ship Logistic (ALSL) in late 2000. Over the longer term, our plans call for the manufacture of over 30 new major warships with contracts being placed at the appropriate time.

Kosovo

26. Mr. Bradshaw: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what assessment he has made of the security situation in Kosovo. [117906]

29. Mrs. Mahon: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on the military situation in Kosovo. [117909]

Ms Osborne: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on the security situation in Kosovo. [117897]

Mr. Spellar: KFOR and UNMIK face a challenging security situation in Kosovo. Ethnic intimidation and violence continues, often orchestrated by a small number of extremists. British forces are making a major contribution to addressing these problems. We will ensure that British forces committed to KFOR are at the right strength, and have the necessary equipment to do their job.

We decided recently to deploy additional helicopters and unmanned aerial reconnaissance vehicles to improve KFOR's intelligence gathering capability. We are also deploying 60 members of the Ministry of Defence police to reinforce the UNMIK police, joining some 100 United Kingdom police officers already serving in Kosovo.

European Defence Co-operation

27. Mr. Plaskitt: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what progress has been made since the Helsinki summit in improving European defence co-operation. [117907]

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Mr. Hoon: We continue to make excellent progress on the European defence initiative. At the recent informal European Council in Lisbon, EU member states agreed the process for taking forward the commitment to improving capabilities made at Helsinki. The interim bodies necessary for the EU to decide on military matters were established in March.

MOD Employees (North-east)

30. Mr. Cousins: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what percentage of his uniformed and civil employees are based in the North-east region; and what percentage of his uniformed employees were recruited in the North-east region. [117910]

Mr. Spellar: As at 1 October 1999 the Ministry of Defence had one per cent. of its uniformed and civilian employees based in the North-East region. These are the latest figures that are available.

The three Services recruited the following numbers of uniformed personnel in the North-east region in the financial year 1999-2000:

Royal Navy Rating Entrants 8 per cent.
Army Officers and Other Ranks 8.36 per cent.
RAF, Officers and Airmen 15.39 per cent.

There are no statistics available for Naval Officer entrants for the region as these were calculated on a different basis.

The figures represent entrants who joined through recruiting offices in the North-east region and do not necessarily mean that they are from the region.

Child Support Agency

31. Caroline Flint: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what progress is being made on reforming the service restrictions affecting deductions from service personnel pay to ensure that Child Support Agency deduction of earnings orders can be fully implemented. [117911]

Mr. Spellar: The purpose of Minimum Rates of Pay is to protect Service personnel and their families from hardship. Of the Child Support Agency maintenance awards made against Service parents, 99 per cent. are met in full. In only one in a hundred Service cases is less than the full amount of a maintenance award being paid. This contrasts with the current Child Support Agency average of only 40 per cent. of parents paying in full, with 30 per cent. paying nothing at all. Nevertheless, consideration is being given to reforming minimum Service pay regulations.

Defence Medical Services

32. Mr. David Heath: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on recruitment and retention of staff in Defence Medical Services. [117912]

Dr. Moonie: As we have previously acknowledged, there are serious shortages of manpower in the regular Defence Medical Services. Manning levels over the last year have been fairly stable although the numbers leaving on premature voluntary retirement continue at higher levels than we would wish. Recruitment into training is

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generally satisfactory, with nurse training places and medical cadetships having been increased. Direct entry recruitment of qualified personnel is difficult, particularly of qualified doctors. Measures to improve both retention and direct entry recruitment are under consideration.

Bulgaria and Turkey

33. Mr. Viggers: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what contact his Department has had with (a) the headquarters of the South-East Europe Brigade at Plovdiv in Bulgaria and (b) the Partnership for Peace study centre at Ankara, Turkey. [117913]

Mr. Spellar: The United Kingdom Ministry of Defence has had limited informal contacts with the Headquarters South-East Europe Brigade, Plovdiv, Bulgaria, and the Partnership for Peace study centre in Ankara, Turkey. In the case of the Headquarters, a visit was made on 21 March by a group of Staff and Students from the Joint Services Command and Staff College during a regional tour, accompanied by the British Defence Attache, Sofia. There has been contact between the Commander and Staff of the Partnership for Peace study centre, Ankara, and the UK Officer attached to the Regional Training Centre, Bucharest, which also has recognition as a Partnership for Peace training centre.

Representatives from the UK Armed Forces are due to attend two events at the Ankara centre later this year.

Air Transport

34. Mr. Ben Chapman: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what plans he has to procure new transport aircraft to meet his Department's short-term strategic airlift requirement. [117914]

36. Mr. Brady: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on the RAF's air transport capabilities. [117916]

Mr. Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what plans he has to procure heavy-lift aircraft in the short and medium term. [117878]

Mr. Hoon: We are continuing to assess the proposals for both our short-term and longer term airlift requirements and hope to be in a position to make a decision in the next few weeks.

RAF Scampton

35. Mr. Leigh: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what units, apart from the Red Arrows, will be based at RAF Scampton. [117915]

Mr. Spellar: Currently, there are no plans to base other RAF units at RAF Scampton. However, following my recent announcement that the Red Arrows will be based at Scampton, (subject to TU consultation), we will consider ways of maximising MOD use of the retained estate. In addition, we have agreed that the firm of Bombardier can use one of the surplus hangars for aircraft maintenance, which will create job opportunities in the local area. There should also be scope to market surplus hangar capacity on the airfield site.

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Recruitment

37. Mr. Robathan: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if each armed service has fulfilled its recruiting targets for 1999-2000. [117917]

Mr. Spellar: The latest available figures for recruits against the 1999-2000 intake targets for each of the Armed Services are:

	Intake	Percentage of target
Naval Service	4,954	99
Army	15,671	95
RAF	4,130	96
Total Services	24,755	96

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