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23 Jan 2003 : Column 452W—continued

Service Discharges

Mr. Keetch: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence pursuant to his answer of 27 November 2002, Official Report, column 324W, what was the breakdown by rank of those discharged under QR9.413 in the last 15 years. [92701]

Dr. Moonie: The breakdown by rank of those discharged under Queen's Regulations 1975 Paragraph 9.413 'Not required for a full Army career' in the last 15 years is shown in the following table.

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YearRank
CPL + aboveLCPLPTEYear total
198869174249492
198997130240467
1990344957140
1991282547100
199211612887331
1993474565157
1994101314
19950077
1996588361202
1997859353231
1998675751175
199933352593
200011243166
2001 and 20025143150
Total6518571,0172,525

Due to the low numbers involved, the figures for 2001 and 2002 have been combined and the information is not broken down by rank above Corporal (Cpl.), because this could identify individuals and breach disclosure and confidentiality policy.

Service Personnel (Discharges)

Mr. Keetch: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many soldiers subject to manning control in the last 10 years then elected their right to discharge and were discharged under QR9.373. [92700]

Dr. Moonie: The number of soldiers who were subject to manning control, then elected their right to discharge, and were subsequently discharged under Queen's Regulations, paragraph 9.373 'By right having given the appropriate notice' is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Storm Shadow

Mr. Jenkin: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence when Storm Shadow will enter service with the RAF. [91034]

Mr. Ingram: Due to technical problems experienced in the development of Storm Shadow we are reviewing the programme's timescales with MBDA.

We are working hard with MBDA to ensure that the RAF gets this important capability into service as soon as possible, while not jeopardising the long-term performance of the system.

DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER

Affordable Housing (Infrastructure Provision)

Helen Southworth: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what action he is taking to ensure that planning of the siting of affordable housing takes into account infrastructure provision with special reference to (a) transport, (b) schooling (c) medical and (d) other local service needs of the residents. [93003]

Mr. McNulty: Planning Policy Guidance Note 3: "Housing" (paragraph 31) advises that in deciding which sites to allocate for housing, local planning authorities should assess their potential and suitability

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for development having regard to a number of matters such as the capacity of existing and potential infrastructure, including public transport, and social infrastructure (such as schools and hospitals); and the ability to provide sufficient demand to sustain appropriate local services and facilities.

Brent Cross Shopping Centre

Mr. Dismore: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister when he expects to make a decision on the planning issues concerning the proposed extension of Brent Cross shopping centre; and if he will make a statement. [93072]

Mr. McNulty: My right hon. Friend the Deputy Prime Minister is currently considering the responses received to his reference back letter of 29 November 2002 and hopes to issue a decision shortly.

Container Ports

Dr. Julian Lewis: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what his policy is on approving the development of non-brownfield sites for container port use. [91698]

Mr. McNulty: The general policy of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister in respect of development for which planning permission is necessary is to encourage the use of previously developed land for development in preference to building on greenfield land. Each planning application has, however, to be considered on its merits and there may be circumstances in which the use of brownfield sites for container port use is not appropriate.

Departmental Expenditure Limit

Mr. Liddell-Grainger: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what reasons underlay the technical adjustment of £1,000,000 to correct the treatment of an Ordnance Survey interest payment in his departmental expenditure limit. [92510]

Mr. McNulty: This adjustment was to correct an inputting error in the budgeting treatment for Ordnance Survey in the Main Estimates 2002–03. It did not reflect any alteration to scheduled net interest transactions made by Ordnance Survey in 2002–03. These were in respect of:


I refer the hon. Member to Notes 5 and 12 on pages 63 and 67 of Ordnance Survey's Annual Report and Accounts 2001–02, which refers to these transactions for the two previous years. The Ordnance Survey's Annual Report and Accounts 2001–02 have been placed in the Libraries of the House

Empty Homes (Select Committee Report)

Mr. Hammond: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister when he expects to have completed his evaluation of the

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report in the previous session of Parliament of the Transport, Local Government and Regions Select Committee on Empty Homes. [92646]

Mr. McNulty: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister sets out our evaluation of the Select Committee's report on Empty Homes in our response which were presented to Parliament in May 2002 (Cm 5514), copies of which were placed in the Library.

We are taking forward a number of recommendations made in the report as part of our programme of work.

Environmentally Protected Sites (Planning Permission)

Dr. Julian Lewis: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what criteria he applies in deciding to overrule public inquiry reports refusing permission for industrial development of environmentally protected sites. [91696]

Mr. McNulty: Decisions on every planning application are made on their merits, taking account of the facts of the application, national planning policy, development plans, the recommendations of a public inquiry inspector and any other material considerations.

Fire Station Equipment

Mr Clifton-Brown: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will take up the offer from Mike Bennett of Vantage Point, Mitcheldene, Gloucestershire, to make available fire station premises with two modern fully-equipped red fire engines. [85182]

Mr. Leslie: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister is very grateful for all offers of assistance during the current fire dispute. We understand that in December officers from Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service and the Army examined Mr. Bennett's fire appliances but decided not to use them. Since then two members of the Fire Service College have examined the appliances, with a view to using them in training, to replace appliances from the college that are currently being used by those providing emergency fire cover.

Geographic Information

Mr. Liddell-Grainger: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what assessment the Intra Governmental Group on Geographic Information has made of the size of the geographic information market in the UK. [92511]

Mr. McNulty: The Intra Governmental group on Geographic Information (IGGI) has made no estimate of the size of the UK Geographic Information market.

Green Belt

Mr. Wilkinson: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what steps he has taken to address the concerns about the protection of green belt land from speculative development expressed in Early Day Motion 1236 in the previous Session of Parliament. [92648]

Mr. McNulty: Government policy on the green belt is set out in Planning Policy Guidance Note (PPG) 2, which states that protecting the countryside from encroachment is one of the main purposes of including land in the green belt. In addition to the usual strict controls on development in the countryside, in green

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belts there is a "general presumption against inappropriate development", which is by definition harmful to the green belt and conflicts with the purposes of including land in it.

The Government reaffirmed their commitment to the protection and enhancement of the green belt in my right hon. Friend the Deputy Prime Minister statement on sustainable communities, housing and planning in the House of Commons on 18 July 2002.

Housing (Stock Transfer)

Virginia Bottomley : To ask the Deputy Prime Minister which local authorities have taken forward large scale voluntary transfer, broken down by party control; and what assessment he has made of the benefits of Large Scale Voluntary Transfer. [92010]

Mr. McNulty: The list shows local authorities that have completed large scale voluntary transfers of their housing stock broken down by current party control. My right hon. Friend The Deputy Prime Minister will shortly announce the Government's comprehensive long term programme for sustainable communities. This will include an outline of how the Government sees stock transfer as contributing to the delivery of the decent homes target.






































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