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Skill Force (Oldham)

Patrick Mercer: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on the launching of the Skill Force in Oldham. [95413]

Dr. Moonie: The Skill Force initiative is part of Ministry of Defence's work in the wider community as a force for good. The objective is to reduce the number of pupils not in employment, education or training on completion of mandatory education at 16. More immediately, the aim is to reduce truancy, school exclusion and juvenile crime. This is done by using the skills and experience of ex-Service instructors to deliver a vocational alternative for one day a week in school time. The course develops Wider and Key skills through a range of awards and qualifications ranging from St. John's Ambulance young lifesaver to Duke of Edinburgh and Key Skills qualifications. The course is structured around the ASDAN modular vocational award studied at Bronze/Silver level. Pupils gain self-confidence and team skills while working with strong positive role models from the armed forces.

As a result of an independent evaluation of two of the more mature schemes carried out last year, it was agreed that DfES would fund a further 12 schemes as part of its Behaviour Improvement Programme. 13 local education authorities were invited to include Skill Force in their range of behaviour improvement measures. I am pleased to say that Oldham was one of the authorities chosen and that the scheme there was formally opened on 9 January 2003. A total of some 54 young people are involved in Skill Force Oldham, the participating schools are, Breeze Hill School, Radclyffe School and South Chadderton School.

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Special Advisers/Press Officers

Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many (a) special advisers and (b) press officers have been employed by his Department in each year from 1994–95 to 2002–03; and at what cost in each year. [92464]

Dr. Moonie: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my hon. Friend the Minister of State, Cabinet Office, on 31 January 2003, Official Report, column 1056W, regarding the number of special advisers.

Details on the number and costs of press officers employed by the Ministry of Defence for the dates in question are not readily available. I will write to the hon. Member once the information is to hand and a copy of my letter will be placed in the Library of the House.

Suicide Prevention Measures

Patrick Mercer: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what suicide prevention measures he intends to put in place in the armed forces. [95404]

Dr. Moonie: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 2 December 2002, Official Report, column 486W, to my hon. Friend the Member for Hull, North (Mr. McNamara).

Theft/Fraud

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what his estimate is of the cost of theft and fraud to (a) his Department, (b) its agencies and (c) non-departmental public bodies in 2002. [89892]

Dr. Moonie: Reported estimates of the cost of fraud and theft are maintained for the sake of consistency in respect of financial years only and relate to a combination of suspected and proven non-procurement and procurement frauds and thefts with estimated values refined from time to time as investigations, sometimes lasting a year or more, reach a conclusion. A major element of estimated cost usually relates to "at risk" estimates applied to suspected procurement fraud cases which are often resolved as "no crime" or have a proven value lower than original estimates. The reported figures for the Department, its agencies and non- departmental public bodies for the financial year 2001–02 are as follows.

£

Department	Agencies	NDPBs
1,341,364	62,816	-

No abatement is made for subsequent recoveries.

UNICOM

Patrick Mercer: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what measures have been put in place to make UNICOM earlier to use. [95407]

Dr. Moonie: UNICOM, the Army's unit administrative IT system, is represented on several user-groups and fora that consider proposals for system improvements. Continuous improvement is achieved through 'Change Requests', submitted by users and

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sponsors; on average some three to four of these are actioned per month and a major upgrade takes place quarterly. UNICOM can also operate through a Windows emulation facility and some sites operate the software through a 'Graphical User Interface (GUI)', but large-scale deployment of this software is dependent on replacement of the user terminals currently in place. This is currently being considered as part of the wider Defence Communications Services Agency Defence Integration Infrastructure (DII) programme alongside the long-term future of the system.

Wattisham Air Traffic Contract

Mr. Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether the risk assessments used in the first and second assessments of the Wattisham Air Traffic Contract were the same. [95955]

Mr. Ingram: There was a separate risk assessment in each competition for the Wattisham Air Traffic Control Contract. The first competition (contract CS 4D/2017) was won by VT Aerospace but the contract was subsequently declared void by mutual consent. Following termination of this contract, a second competition (contract CS 4D/2027), was launched which included a new risk assessment drawing on the lessons learned from the earlier one.

PRIVY COUNCIL

Parliamentary Questions

Andrew Mackinlay: To ask the President of the Council if he will make it Government policy that Ministers give holding replies to non-named day questions if a substantive reply is not possible within 10 days of tabling. [94689]

Mr. Robin Cook: I have no plans to make such a change.

Departmental Travel

Mr. Burns: To ask the President of the Council how many times since 2001 he has taken flights within his departmental duties in the UK; how many of these were (a) charter flights, (b) first or club class and (c) by helicopter; and who accompanied the Minister on each trip. [95610]

Mr. Robin Cook: Since becoming Leader of the House of Commons and President of the Council I have not taken any flights on departmental business.

WALES

Correspondence

Mr. Llwyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales how many letters from hon. Members Wales Office Ministers have dealt with since October 2002. [95488]

Peter Hain: 38.

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Education Announcement

Mr. Llwyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what discussions he had with the First Secretary of the National Assembly about the press coverage of the education announcement in Parliament on 22 January; and if he will make a statement. [95478]

Peter Hain: I have had a number of conversations with the First Minister of the National Assembly for Wales about the Higher Education White Paper.

Gwydyr House

Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales pursuant to his answer of 16 January 2003, Official Report, column 711W, what his estimate is of the open market value of Gwydyr House in Whitehall on the basis of maximum value for non-existing use; and if he will make a statement. [95555]

Peter Hain: The figure given in the answer of 16 January is the open market value, given existing planning permission.

Mr. David Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales pursuant to his answer of 16 January 2003, Official Report, column 711W, on Welsh Office assets, what accounting conventions underlay the upward re-valuation of Gwydyr House from the valuation on 31 March 2000; and if he will make a statement. [95495]

Peter Hain: The valuation of fixed assets in the resource accounts conforms to Generally Agreed Accounting Principles for the UK. These dictate that each year a true and fair value be placed on all assets. They also require that professional valuations are required for fixed assets at intervals of no more than five years and that appropriate and relevant statistical indices should be used to reflect any increase in the value in the interim.

Permanent Staff

Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales how many permanent staff have been employed by his Department in each year from 1999–2000 to 2003–04; and if he will make a statement. [89954]

Peter Hain: Data on staffing levels for my Department, since its establishment on 1 July 1999, is released twice a year by Cabinet Office Press Notice. The latest data for April 2002, was published on 31 October 2002. Data for April of each year from 2000–01 appears in the latest edition of the annual publication "Civil Service Statistics". Copies of the Press Notices and annual publications are available from the Libraries of the House.

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