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Faslane

Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many police officers were deployed at Faslane on (a) 8, (b) 11, (c) 12 and (d) 13 February; and how many MOD Police officers have been deployed at the Faslane base in each of the last 12 months. [37256]

Dr. Moonie: I am withholding details of the number of Ministry of Defence Police officers deployed at HMNB Clyde in accordance with Exemption 1 (defence, security and international relations) of the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information. I can confirm, however, that additional MDP officers were deployed on 11, 12 and 13 February 2002 at HMNB Clyde in response to planned demonstrator activity.

Inflight Refuelling Services

Mr. Cousins: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence when he expects to outsource the inflight refuelling services of the Royal Air Force; how many (a) aircraft and (b) service personnel are involved with that outsourcing; and which (i) companies and (ii) consortiums are involved in bidding for such services. [37827]

Dr. Moonie: The future Strategic Tanker Aircraft (FSTA) is planned to replace our VC10 and TriStar air to air refuelling/air transport aircraft from around 2007. Two consortiums have submitted bids for this prospective PFI programme. They are AirTanker Ltd., comprising Rolls Royce, Cobham, Halliburton, EADS and Thales; and the Tanker Transport Service Company Ltd., which comprises BAE Systems, Boeing, Serco and Spectrum Capital. A mix of Regular RAF, Sponsored Reservist and civilian personnel are expected to operate and support the FSTA service. We are currently engaged in preliminary negotiations with both consortiums and expect to decide later this year whether PFI offers the best value for money and, if it does, which of the two consortiums is our preferred bidder. It is too early to say how many Service personnel and aircraft will be involved.

Offset Agreements

Mr. Cousins: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many offset agreements have been negotiated in Government to Government defence export contracts and MOUs in the last three years; and what the total value of such offset arrangements is estimated to be in the last three years. [37830]

Dr. Moonie: No offset agreements have been negotiated in Government to Government defence exports contracts or Memorandums of Understanding in the last three years.

QinetiQ

Mr. Key: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list the United States companies purchased by QinetiQ; at what cost; and if he will make a statement. [37169]

26 Feb 2002 : Column 1149W

Mr. Hoon: Since its creation as a company on 1 July 2001, QinetiQ has not purchased any United States companies. However, QinetiQ did form a US subsidiary last year, QinetiQ, Inc, with the aim of enhancing the growth of QinetiQ's business with government and commercial customers in the US market. In addition, QinetiQ has recently re-formed a new US company, QinetiQ Trusted Information Management, Inc, as a wholly owned subsidiary of QinetiQ, Inc.

A400M

Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what meetings have been scheduled between Ministers in his Department and their German counterparts prior to 31 March in order to discuss the A400M strategic transport aircraft programme. [37834]

Dr. Moonie: My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Defence has discussed this issue with his German counterpart on several occasions. No further meetings between Ministers are currently scheduled. Senior officials however are in regular contact with their counterparts in the other participating nations.

Chinook Helicopter Crash

Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence when he will make a statement on the findings of the House of Lords Select Committee on the accident to RAF Chinook HC2 ZD576. [37833]

Mr. Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence when he expects to issue his response to the report of the House of Lords Committee inquiry into the Chinook helicopter crash in 1994. [37758]

Mr. Ingram: Work is already under way to consider the findings of the Select Committee. When this is completed a formal response will be made to the Chairman of the Committee, Lord Jauncey, and to the House of Lords.

Deployments (Central and Eastern Europe)

Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence (1) how many (a) MOD staff and (b) non-military staff have been involved in deployments to (i) Estonia, (ii) Lithuania and (iii) Latvia in the last three years; at what cost; and if he will make a statement; [36940]

(2) how many (a) MOD staff and (b) non-military MOD staff have been involved in deployments to (i) Albania, (ii) Romania and (iii) Slovenia in the last three years; at what cost; and if he will make a statement. [37121]

Mr. Ingram: Numbers of military and Ministry of Defence civilian personnel deployed to Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Slovenia, Albania and Romania during the last three years are given in the table. The figures for 1999–2000 and 2000–01 were previously published in MOD Performance Reports (Cm5000 Annexe G and Cm5920 Annexe H). They include members of visiting training and advisory teams and resident in-country advisers. The costs shown are approximate.

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	Military	Cost £000	Civilian	Cost £000
1999–2000
Estonia	13	87	1	18
Lithuania	21	230	1	72
Latvia	19	121	1	36
Slovenia	—	—	—	—
Albania	—	—	—	—
Romania	6	404	1	72
2000–01
Estonia	10	72	—	—
Lithuania	12	250	1	75
Latvia	13	116	1	75
Slovenia	—	—	1	75
Albania	—	—	—	—
Romania	2	230	1	75
2001–02
Estonia	17	213	—	—
Lithuania	22	108	2	80
Latvia	23	107	4	84
Slovenia	1	2.5	2	80
Albania	—	—	—	—
Romania	2	240	1	78

These deployments form part of the Outreach programme in central and eastern Europe which, in turn, is part of the wider Defence Diplomacy mission. Outreach contributes to international stability by assisting countries in the region to establish democratically accountable, cost-effective armed forces capable of contributing both to national and regional security and, increasingly, to international security through participation in peace support operations.

Not all personnel taking part in Outreach activities are captured in the annually published figures. The inclusion of personnel engaged in one-off, short duration activities would distort the overall picture.

There are Defence Attachés in the British embassies in Latvia, Lithuania, Albania, Slovenia and Romania, each of which has a military assistant. They are not included in the statistics as their role is diplomatic, facilitating military assistance rather than providing it directly.

FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS

Consultants

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what the total cost to his Department was of the use of external consultants in each of the last four years. [35016]

Mr. MacShane: The cost of external consultants was:

	£ million
1997–1998	15.8
1998–1999	14.5
1999–2000	14.0
2000–2001	17.9

Accountancy Contracts

Annabelle Ewing: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will publish

26 Feb 2002 : Column 1151W

the (a) number and (b) value of contracts awarded by his Department to (i) Arthur Andersen, (ii) Deloitte Touche, (ii) Ernst and Young, (iv) KPMG and (v) PricewaterhouseCoopers accountants in each year since 1997. [34987]

Mr. MacShane: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Bath (Mr. D. Foster) on 25 February 2002, Official Report, column 717–18W.

Arms Dealing (Mr. John Bredenkamp)

Paul Farrelly: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what information he has collated on the arms dealing activities of Mr. John Bredenkamp and companies associated with him in (a) Zimbabwe and (b) the Democratic Republic of the Congo. [34903]

Mr. Bradshaw: We are aware of past arms dealing activities by Mr. Bredenkamp. If any person has any information about sanctions breaking, they should inform the relevant UK authorities. I am unable to provide the information requested by my hon. Friend under Exemption 1 of the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information.

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