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Written Ministerial Statements

Tuesday 8 July 2003

TREASURY

Statistics Commission

The Economic Secretary to the Treasury (John Healey): The Statistics Commission's annual report and accounts, covering the 2002–03 financial year, are being published today, having been laid before both Houses of Parliament. Copies are available in the Vote Office.

Commemorative Coins

The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr. Gordon Brown): Her Majesty the Queen has been graciously pleased to approve my recommendation that the following commemorative coins should be issued in 2005:

A pair of crown pieces for the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar and the death of Nelson;


A two-pound coin for the 400th anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot;


A fifty pence piece to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the publication of Samuel Johnson's dictionary of the English language.

Collector versions of these coins will be at a premium above face value and, during the course of the year 2005, the coins will also become available at face value from banks and post offices.

CONSTITUTIONAL AFFAIRS

Legal Services Ombudsman Annual Report

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs (Mr. David Lammy): The Legal Services Ombudsman has today published the twelfth Annual Report, and copies have been placed in the Libraries of both Houses.

FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS

Pakistan (Travel Advice)

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Mr. Chris Mullin): The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has changed its travel advice for Pakistan with effect from 7 July 2003.

We previously advised British Nationals other than those of Pakistani origin:

against all but essential travel to Pakistan for which there is a compelling reason and where they have confidence in the security arrangements for the entire visit;


against holiday travel to Pakistan and,

to leave Pakistan unless they have a compelling reason to stay and unless they also have confidence in their security arrangements.

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We are now advising British Nationals:

against holiday travel unless they have family contacts there;


if they are travelling to Pakistan for professional or holiday reasons, they should be very careful about, and confident of, their personal security arrangements throughout their visit.

Our previous advice was drafted against the backdrop of escalating tensions between India and Pakistan in 2002, a number of terrorist attacks against Western targets (including Pakistani Christian institutions) in 2002 and unrest in Pakistan following coalition action in Afghanistan and, more recently, in Iraq.

We reviewed this advice taking into account the recent improvement in India/Pakistan relations, post-conflict stabilisation efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq, the action taken by the Pakistani authorities against al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups in Pakistan and the relative decrease in the number of terrorist attacks against Western targets thus far this year.

We believe that our advice needs to reflect these improvements, but without underplaying the risks to the British public. Our advice continues to underline that Pakistan remains a hostile environment for Western interests. It also underlines the serious risk of terrorism throughout Pakistan and the risk of indiscriminate attacks against Western targets.

Visibly Western targets and individuals are more vulnerable to attack than British citizens of Pakistani origin and our advice makes this clear. We are therefore advising British nationals against holiday travel unless they have family contacts in Pakistan. Our advice also highlights the need for all visitors travelling to Pakistan (for business, holiday, visiting family or other purposes) to be very careful about, and confident of, their personal security arrangements throughout their visit.

DEFENCE

Defence Aviation Repair Agency

The Minister of State, Ministry of Defence (Mr. Adam Ingram): The following key targets have been set for the Chief Executive of the Defence Aviation Repair Agency for financial year 2003–04:

Title	Details	Target
KT 1—Financial Performance 1	The measurement of DARA's ROCE.	To achieve a minimum average ROCE of 6 per cent. over the first three years of trading (FY01/02-FY03/04 inclusive).
KT 2—Financial Performance 2	The measurement of value of contracts won.	To achieve order intake to the value of at least £160 million.
KT 3—Quality	The measurement of attributable major customer concerns received from DARA's customers.	To have no more attributable major customer concerns than the baseline set on DARA's performance of FY 01/02, less 10 per cent.
KT 4—Efficiency	The measurement of the reduction in unit production price of a representative basket of DARA outputs.	To achieve a cumulative reduction in the unit production price of 7 per cent. in real terms, of the basket of products (weighted by value of annual task quantity), baselined fromFY01/02.

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Army Base Repair Organisation

The Minister of State, Ministry of Defence (Mr. Adam Ingram): The following Key Targets have been set for the Chief Executive of ABRO for Financial Year 2003–04. The targets build on the high standards of service already provided by the Agency:

Key Target 1:

To achieve at least a 6 per cent. average Return On Capital Employed (ROCE) over the first three years of trading (FY 2002–03 -2004–05). Key Target 2:


To complete delivery of 100 per cent. of the planned revenue projection (£150 million) in each of the next five years (FY 2003–04 -2007–08). Key Target 3:


To introduce and have operational the new Material Management System (MMS) and to have detached from the Equipment Support Provision and Procurement Administration, Supply System by 31 March 2005. (A milestone has been set for FY 2003–04—the MMS pilot is to be operational at ABRO Bovington by 31 March 2004). Key Target 4:


To reduce the average equipment repair price, across the programme by 4 per cent. in the second year and by 12 per cent. over three years against the 2002–03 baseline. Key Target 5:


To maintain a closing order book of at least £80 million and total sales of £150 million for FY 2003–04, and to maintain this level over the next five years (FY 2003–04 to 2007–08).

Operation Telic Medal

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence (Mr. Ivor Caplin): The House will be aware of the desire to issue a campaign medal to service personnel and entitled civilians engaged on operations in Iraq and supporting areas, collectively known as Operation Telic.

I am pleased to confirm that Her Majesty the Queen has approved the award of a specific campaign medal to mark this operation. The detailed eligibility criteria for this award are being determined and will be published in due course.

Armed Forces Recruitment (Ethnic Minorities)

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence (Mr. Ivor Caplin): In 1998 we instituted a series of recruitment goals to ensure that appropriate levels of recruitment from Britain's ethnic minority communities

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took place. Running for four years, the goals aimed at increasing the recruitment of ethnic minority young people incrementally by 1 per cent. each year until the Forces reached 5 per cent. In the event the outcome for 2001–02 was a very creditable 4.4 per cent., although this figure contains a large number of Commonwealth nationals recruited in this country. Given the nearness to publication of the National Census, and therefore access to new and up-to date- research data, an interim goal of a further 1 per cent. from the previous year's outcome was agreed.

We have found that quite significant numbers of young people travel to the United Kingdom and join the Armed Forces, particularly the Army, which has the greatest number of trades open requiring relatively low security clearances. An internal provisional estimate of the recruiting outcome for 2002–03 makes this clear:

Royal Navy—2.01 per cent. UK national and 1.06 per cent. Commonwealth recruited in UK.


Army—2.8 per cent. officers and 2.4 per cent. other ranks UK nationals and 5.3 per cent. Commonwealth recruited in UK.


Royal Air Force—2.47 per cent. overwhelmingly UK nationals.

All figures exclude Commonwealth personnel joining as the result of RN and Army in-country selection team visits. All figures have yet to be statistically validated.

The numbers of Commonwealth nationals of all ethnic backgrounds seeking to join the Armed Forces is a clear indication of the success of our race equality policies in recent years. Although we welcome the resulting increase in the diversity of the Forces, we should not forget that the original intention of the recruitment goals was to increase the proportion of UK ethnic minority recruits; this remains the objective today. Accordingly, the aim for the next three years is for each Service to increase incrementally each year the proportion of UK ethnic minority recruits by at least 0.5 per cent. with the tri-Service aim of reaching 5 per cent. as soon as possible. We will in addition seek to report the numbers joining from the Commonwealth in order to maintain the transparency of the recruiting process.

These proposals have been discussed and agreed with the Commission for Racial Equality.

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