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Iraq Casualties

Mr. MacDougall: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will estimate the number of (a) civilian and (b) military lives lost in the conflict in Iraq; and if he will make a statement on the coalition's strategy to avoid civilian casualties. [105442]

Mr. Ingram: We have no means of ascertaining the numbers of military or civilian lives lost during the conflict in Iraq to date, although we make every effort to keep any impact upon the Iraqi civilian population to an absolute minimum. All our military planning is conducted in full accordance with our obligations under international law to employ the minimum necessary use of force to achieve military effect, and to avoid injury to non-combatants or civilian infrastructure. Practically, this is achieved through a combination of an extremely careful targeting process and highly accurate precision guided weapons.

Military Equipment

Mr. Liddell-Grainger: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence (1) how many Exocet missiles were found by coalition forces in the last Gulf War; [105510]

(2) what military equipment manufactured in France, other than missiles, was found in Iraq at the end of the last Gulf War. [105511]

Mr. Ingram: Detailed information of equipment found by coalition forces in the last Gulf War is not held centrally by the Ministry of Defence and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

MOD Land

Sue Doughty: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list Ministry of Defence sites in the South East of England that were classed as (a) common land and (b) manorial waste prior to their acquisition by the MOD in the last 30 years. [106214]

Dr. Moonie: Departmental records for the South East (SE) are currently being searched to extract the information requested. The geographical area handled by Defence Estates' SE Region covers Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Berkshire, North Hampshire, Surrey, West and East Sussex, Kent and Greater London. There are potentially 10,000 records/deeds that need to be investigated by Records staff, based at Aldershot and Canterbury.

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Once the search has been completed I will write to the hon. Member and a copy of my letter will be placed in the Library of the House.

Pension Schemes

Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list the (a) funded and (b) unfunded public sector pension schemes for which his Department, its agencies and its non-departmental public bodies are responsible; when the last actuarial valuation was of each scheme; what the value was of the assets at the last actuarial valuation of each scheme; what deficit is disclosed by the last actuarial valuation of each scheme; and if he will make a statement. [104924]

Dr. Moonie: With one exception the Ministry of Defence, its agencies and non-departmental public bodies are not responsible for any funded pension schemes. The schemes for the three Armed Forces Sports Boards are unfunded schemes that are analogous to the Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme and are paid for by grant-in-aide and non-public funds. As such they have no assets and are not subject to actuarial valuation.

Of the seven executive non-departmental public bodies listed in "Public Bodies 2002", the National Army Museum scheme is analogous to the Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme and is paid for through grant-in-aid. It has no assets and is not subject to actuarial valuation. The Royal Naval Museum, the Royal Naval Submarine Museum and the Fleet Air Arm Museum have privately provided money purchase schemes. Again, the schemes have no assets and are not subject to actuarial valuation. The RAF Museum supports a money purchase stakeholder pension to which it does not contribute and there is no designated pension scheme for the Royal Marines Museum. The one funded scheme is run by the Oil and Pipelines Agency. The last actuarial valuation of the scheme was 5 April 2001 at which the value of the assets was £2.11 million. The funding surplus at the last valuation was f£0.468 million.

MOD is also responsible for unfunded schemes for locally engaged staff in Gibraltar, Cyprus and St. Helena. These schemes have no assets and are not subject to actuarial valuation, being funded locally through operating costs.

The Armed Forces Pension Scheme is an unfunded, salary-related contracted-out occupational pension scheme open to most members of the armed forces. There is also a scheme for Non-Regular Permanent Staff and the Army Careers Officers Pension Scheme. The latter two are minor schemes incorporated with the Armed Forces Pension Scheme for actuarial and Resource Accounting purposes, whose membership amounted to some 0.54 per cent. of the overall Armed Forces Pension Scheme as at 31 Mar 2002.

The last actuarial statement for the Armed Forces Pension Scheme was produced by the Government Actuary's Department for the year ending 31 March 2002 ¹ , and was included as part of the Armed Forces Pension Scheme Resource Accounts 2001–02 which are laid before Parliament. As at 31 March 2002, the value of liabilities for the Armed Forces Pension Scheme was

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£53.5 billion. The next full valuation is currently in progress and will be included in the Armed Forces Pension Scheme Resource Accounts for 2002–03.

¹ Based on an approximate assessment carried out as at 31 March 1997, updated to reflect known changes that had occurred since that date.

Procurement

Mr. Liddell-Grainger: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many contracts the Defence Procurement Agency is dealing with. [105504]

Mr. Ingram: The Defence Procurement Agency placed a total of 938 new contracts during the past two financial years up to and including FY 2001–02. During the first nine months of the current financial year it placed a further 457 contracts. The precise number of contracts being managed could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Secondments

Mr. Jenkin: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence (1) what Department for International Development staff have been assigned to his Department in the past year; to whom they report; and what are and will their responsibilities be; [104034]

(2) which officials within his Department have responsibility for liaising with the Department for International Development; whether their roles are full-time; whether they report through the chiefs of staff; and what their (a) purpose and (b) function are. [104031]

Dr. Moonie: There are no Ministry of Defence (MOD) staff dedicated exclusively to liaison with the Department for International Development (DfID). Liaison occurs at all levels on an ad hoc and routine basis where co-ordination and consultation on policy and implementation is required.

No DfID staff are assigned to MOD. A number of DfID officials are, however embedded in the United Kingdom National Component Command Head-Quarters in Kuwait, advising on contingency planning for humanitarian assistance in the period immediately following conflict A DfID official is also embedded within the Defence Advisory Team, based at Shrivenham, which provides advice on Security Sector Reform advice and co-ordination as part of the cross departmental Conflict Prevention Initiative. All embedded staff report to DfID.

South Korea

Mr. Roy: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many MOD personnel are serving in South Korea. [106135]

Mr. Ingram: I refer my hon. Friend to the answers I gave on 6 March 2003, Official Report, column 1175, to the hon. Member for Newark (Patrick Mercer) and on 24 March 2003, Official Report, column 20W, to my hon. Friend the Member for Hamilton, South (Mr. Tynan). In addition to these posts, a Ministry of Defence civilian fills the First Secretary Defence post at the British Embassy in Seoul.

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FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS

Chechnya

Mr. Jack: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the opportunities which exist in Chechnya for those opposed to Russian policies in that country to voice that opposition. [104748]

Mr. MacShane: Apart from a small number of foreign correspondents, most media in Chechnya are state-owned. While they do report stories of Chechen civilian complaints against Russian troops, the main thrust of Russian news reporting tends to be supportive of the Government line.

Diversity Courses

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many civil servants in his Department have attended diversity courses. [105649]

Mr. Mike O'Brien: The FCO has been running training courses on diversity issues for many years. In the years for which records are available, 1998–2003, a total of 3,155 members of staff have attended our Equal Opportunities and subsequently our Managing Inclusion course. We have just introduced a new Valuing Diversity programme, which will reach more than 600 members of staff per year for the three years of its contract.

Guantanamo Bay

Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs pursuant to his answer of 24 March 2003, Official Report, column 70W, on Guantanamo Bay, whether he has (a) requested formal consular access to Guantanamo Bay from the US authorities and (b) called for the status of the prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay to be decided by a tribunal; and if he will make a statement. [105363]

Mr. Mike O'Brien: The information is as follows:

(a) Yes.

(b) Although the Foreign Secretary has not called for a tribunal to decide the detainees status, he has raised the issue of the detainees with Colin Powell several times, most recently on 23 January. Officials are in frequent contact.

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We have made clear that whatever their status the detainees are entitled to humane treatment and, if prosecuted, a fair trial. We have been encouraging the US to move forward with the process of determining the future of the British detainees. We shall continue to do so.

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