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London Weighting
Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will estimate the total value of London weightings and London living allowances for his Department; and if he will make a statement. [6830]
Dr. Moonie: The cost of the various London payments made to service and civilian staff in the Ministry of Defence is £20.3 million. Some 13,300 military and civilian staff are in receipt of such payments.
Departmental Spending
Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the total amount of spending by his Department was in each nation and region of the UK, in
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the last year for which figures are available; what proportion of his Department's total spending this constitutes; and if he will make a statement. [6833]
Dr. Moonie: I regret that data on defence expenditure as a whole are not available by nation and region of the UK and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. However, I draw the hon. Member's attention to the recently published document, "Defence Statistics 2001", a copy of which is available in the Library. Table 1.9 contains data on defence expenditure on equipment by region and nation.
Departmental Properties
Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will estimate the total annual running costs for buildings used, owned or rented by his Department for each nation and region of the UK, and estimate the average cost per square metre for properties used by his Department as a whole, and by region and nation of the UK. [6831]
Dr. Moonie: Decisions about the Ministry of Defence use of buildings are not made primarily on the basis of cost. Operational and other factors also play a part. Running costs for MOD buildings are not as present held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
However, with the publication of "In Trust and On Trust: A Strategy for the Defence Estate" in June 2000, MOD has begun to establish a basis on which such information can be more easily collected and assessed. This process may, however, take some time to complete to the level of detail requested.
Legal Services
Peter Bottomley: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will estimate the numbers of qualified lawyers and support staff in each of the armed services' legal departments, identifying where possible those concerned with courts martials, in (a) 1980, (b) 1990 and (c) 2000. [7402]
Mr. Ingram: The employment of qualified lawyers and support staff in the armed forces, and the organisation of the individual service legal branches, varies greatly.
The Naval Service—the number of qualified lawyers in the Royal Navy for the years requested are:
| Year | Qualified lawyers |
|---|---|
| 1980 | 29 |
| 1990 | 29 |
| 2000 | 33 |
The Royal Navy does not have a dedicated legal branch. Instead, qualified naval barristers are employed in legal posts throughout the service. In the year 2000, there were 21 legal posts of which 17 were filled by barristers. The remaining 16 lawyers will have been employed in normal naval duties afloat and ashore. Unfortunately, no such statistics exist for the years 1980 and 1990. It is estimated that between one third and one half of the qualified legal personnel will have been involved in court martial proceedings as a part of their duties.
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As the naval service does not possess a dedicated legal department, there are no dedicated support staff. It is estimated that about 12 senior and junior RN ratings would have supported the various naval barristers whose work included court martial proceedings. In 1996, a dedicated court martial management cell was established specifically to administer courts martial, consisting of five service and civilian support personnel.
The Army—in both 1980 and 1990, the lawyer strength of the Adjutant General Corps Army Legal Services (AGC(ALS)), formerly the Army Legal Corps, was approximately 53, with the number of these involved in court martial related work estimated as 32. The lawyer strength for 2000 is 97. It is estimated that about 25 to 30 support staff existed in the years 1980 and 1990, and that there were approximately 72 support staff in the year 2000. The exact figures cannot be quoted as a number of the support staff were locally employed personnel at overseas stations, and the figures are not held centrally.
In April 1997 the Army Prosecuting Authority (APA) was formed, with two branches—one in the UK, the other in Germany. The total strength of the APA during the year 2000 dealing with courts martial was:
| Number | |
|---|---|
| Lawyers | 30 |
| Support staff | 32 |
The Royal Air Force—the number of qualified lawyers in the RAF, for the years requested, are:
| Year | Qualified lawyers |
|---|---|
| 1980 | 21(8) |
| 1990 | 24(9) |
| 2000 | 32(12) |
The bracketed figures represent the estimated number of qualified RAF legal officers who were involved in discipline casework, which includes courts martial. Prior to the establishment of the RAF Prosecuting Authority in 1997, some legal officers, particularly in overseas locations, combined a small amount of court martial work with other duties. It is estimated that the number of RAF legal support staff has remained constant at approximately 13 (one NCO and 12 civilians) for each of the dates requested.
Training (Canada)
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many UK service personnel have been involved in training in Canada in each of the last three years; how many have been (a) killed and (b) seriously injured; how many incidents there have been involving live firing; and if he will make a statement. [7179]
Mr. Ingram: The facilities used by the UK armed forces in Canada at Suffield and Wainwright offer excellent training opportunities and, as is the case wherever we train, safety is of paramount importance.
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Safety is managed by trained staff using GPS, cellular phone and terrain data base technology. Any death or injury is, of course, a matter of great regret, but our safety record in Canada—as elsewhere—is good.
The numbers of UK service personnel involved in training in Canada in each of the last three years, the numbers killed and seriously injured, and the number of live firing incidents that were investigated by the land accident investigation team (LAIT) are shown in the table.
| 1999 | 2000 | 2001(52) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Numbers of UK Service personnel involved in training | 5,665 | 5,579 | 7,712 |
| Numbers killed | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Numbers seriously injured | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Numbers of live firing incidents investigated by LAIT | 4 | 8 | 3 |
(52) To date
Terrorist Attacks (USA)
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what discussions he has had with his counterparts in (a) NATO and (b) the European Union on the United Kingdom's response to the events in the USA on 11 September; and if he will make a statement. [7170]
Mr. Hoon: We are committed to pursuing concrete steps to counter terrorism in a number of international forums, and continue to meet overseas colleagues as part of the effort to build a strong international coalition against terrorism. In particular, I have met with NATO and EU colleagues on a number of occasions since 11 September, including during the NATO and EU informal ministerial meetings in Brussels on 26 September and 12 October respectively, to discuss measures to be taken in response to the attacks on the United States.
For the first time in its history, NATO has invoked article 5 of the North Atlantic treaty, which states that an armed attack on one ally is an attack on all. Allies have now agreed material assistance to the US in response to the 11 September outrages, including the deployment of AWACS early warning aircraft and the Standing Naval Force Mediterranean.
The EU Special Council on 21 September agreed to co-operate with the US in bringing to justice and punishing the perpetrators of the 11 September attacks, and approved a set of measures to combat terrorism, including enhancing police and judicial co-operation, developing international legal instruments, putting an end to the funding of terrorism and strengthening air security. The General Affairs Council on 8 October confirmed that all partners strongly support the US and UK military action.
Mr. Paul Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on the criteria to be used to determine terrorist targets to be attacked by NATO in response to the American World Trade Centre and Pentagon attacks. [7135]
Mr. Hoon: NATO, as an organisation, has not participated in attacks on terrorist targets in Afghanistan. The alliance has, however, invoked article 5 of the Washington treaty, which states that an armed attack on
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one ally is an attack on all, in response to the 11 September terrorist attacks. This is the strongest possible message that NATO allies stand shoulder to shoulder with the United States in response to these outrages. Further to a request from the US, allies have agreed to take 8 measures in support of the US response to the terrorist attacks, including deployment of AWACS early warning aircraft to the United States.
US and British forces operations in Afghanistan over recent days are designed to damage, disrupt and destroy al-Qaeda's terrorist network and elements of the military infrastructure of the Taliban, whose support has allowed
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Afghanistan to be used as a base for terrorism across the world. The targets included terrorist training camps, military airfields and air defence sites.
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