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Correspondence
Mrs. Shephard: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food when the right hon. Member for South-West Norfolk will receive a reply to her letter of 25 November on arable area payments. [101859]
Mr. Nick Brown:
I assume the right hon. Member for South-West Norfolk is referring to her letter of 25 October to which I replied on 3 December.
8 Dec 1999 : Column: 557W
Project Aquatrine
Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what is the status of Project Aquatrine. [102324]
Mr. Kilfoyle: Project Aquatrine will provide, for the first time, strategic management of water and sewerage services across more than 3,000 Ministry of Defence sites in Great Britain. The Department aims to achieve this through a Public Private Partnership (PPP) and has today launched a market consultation paper to explore private sector interest in the project. The PPP will lead to greater value for money, investment in the defence infrastructure and enable responsibility for the provision of water and sewerage services to rest with those best able to deal with it while meeting the Department's on-going environmental responsibilities.
The market consultation follows successful pathfinder projects at Tidworth and Lyneham; the outcome will inform the decision on the next phase of the project.
The current plan is to advertise Project Aquatrine in the Official Journal of the European Communities in early 2000, leading to the selection of a partner to begin providing services in late 2003. The project has a potential value of £1 billion over 25 years.
Mr. Martin Bell:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list the incidents of uncommanded flying control movements in helicopters reported by RAF pilots, broken down by helicopter type since 1994. [101652]
Mr. Spellar:
Uncommanded movements are defined as unusual movement of flying controls or rotors that are not caused by pilot inputs. These include those unusual movements found during pre-flight checks.
8 Dec 1999 : Column: 558W
Falklands
Mr. Ben Chapman: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what estimate he has made of the number of land mines in the Falkland Islands. [101822]
Mr. Spellar: I refer my hon. Friend to the answer given by the Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, my hon. Friend the Member for Leeds, West (Mr. Battle) to my hon. Friend the Member for Bolton, North-East (Mr. Crausby) on 30 November 1999, Official Report, column 159W.
Mr. Ben Chapman: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what role he proposes following the 22 UK/French Summit for Anglo-French co-ordination in relation to the UK commitment to the defence of the Falkland Islands. [R] [101420]
Mr. Hoon: None. The security of the Falkland Islands is the responsibility of the United Kingdom Government alone.
Land Mines
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what steps his Department is taking to ensure that foreign military forces stationed in the United Kingdom do not store land mines in the United Kingdom. [98594]
Mr. Spellar:
The UK is fully committed to the Ottawa Convention which prohibits the use, stockpiling, production, and transfer of anti-personnel mines (APMs). The last of the UK's operational stocks of APMs were destroyed on 19 October 1999--three years ahead of the timeframe laid down in the Convention. Allies who have forces stationed in the UK are well aware of the Ottawa Convention's obligations which include the prohibition of
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the stockpiling of APMs on UK territory. The only APMs stored in the UK are the small amount (some 4,000) that the UK's armed forces hold for training and testing in de-mining techniques, as permitted under Article 3 of the Ottawa Convention.
Mr. Paul Marsden:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the recruitment campaign for the Royal Army Medical Corps; and if he will make a statement. [100722]
Mr. Spellar:
The Royal Army Medical Corps undertakes recruiting on a continuous basis, utilising a wide variety of media and the Army Recruiting network. Recruitment into training is good, but it is more difficult to attract already qualified medical personnel. The tri-Service campaign in February and March 1999 aimed at the direct recruitment of qualified personnel has resulted, to date, in one doctor and four nurses entering the Army, with a further six nurses in the recruitment process. Additionally, a major recruiting campaign for the Territorial Army Medical Services was launched in September 1999. It is too early to predict the success of this campaign but early responses seem promising.
Mr. Rendel:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what was the longest amount of overtime worked by any MOD police officer at AWE Aldermaston in any period of (a) two weeks, (b) one month and (c) six months, since November 1998. [100684]
Mr. Spellar
[holding answer 30 November 1999]: The largest number of overtime hours worked by a MOD Police officer at AWE Aldermaston during a one-month period since November 1998 was 120 hours and a six-month period was 532 hours. The MDP do not routinely record overtime worked in two-week periods and this information could only be provided by manually searching through all the individual police pay records at AWE Aldermaston, incurring disproportionate cost.
Mr. Rendel:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what representations he has received from the Defence Police Federation in respect of overtime worked by officers at AWE Aldermaston. [100687]
Mr. Spellar
[holding answer 30 November 1999]: I understand that concerns have been expressed by the local Defence Police Federation at AWE Aldermaston about the levels of overtime worked at that location.
Mr. Field:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list the occasions since 1993 in which deceased aircrew have been found guilty of gross negligence in accidents involving military aircraft which were not fitted with cockpit voice recorders or flight data recorders. [101497]
| Date | Aircraft type | Service | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 June 1994 | Chinook HC2 | RAF | Mull of Kintyre, Scotland |
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Non-core Service Privatisation
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many non-core services have been privatised by his Department in (a) 1999 and (b) each of the previous three years. [101661]
Mr. Spellar: Individual budget areas and agencies routinely contract out services to the private sector where this offers best value for money. No central records of such arrangements are kept. Relevant figures for activities contracted out under the former Competing for Quality (CFQ) initiative and for contracts concluded under the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) are:
| PFI | CFQ | |
|---|---|---|
| 1995-96 | 2 | 8 |
| 1996-97 | 8 | 16 |
| 1997-98 | 6 | 5 |
| 1998-99 | 9 | 5 |
HMS Glasgow
Mr. Jim Murphy: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the current crew levels are of HMS Glasgow. [101298]
Mr. Spellar [holding answer 6 December 1999]: On 1 December 1999 HMS Glasgow had a crew level of 23 Officers and 224 ratings.
Navy Vessels
Mr. Ottaway: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence which naval vessels have been withdrawn in advance of planned exercises during 1999. [101613]
Mr. Spellar: HMS Invincible, HMS Northumberland, HMS Ledbury, HMS Gloucester, HMS Newcastle, HMS Cattistock, HMS Montrose, HMS Monmouth, HMS Fearless, HMS Ocean, HMS Sandown, HMS Edinburgh, HMS Westminster, HMS Grafton have been withdrawn from planned exercises this year.
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