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Armoured Vehicles

Mr. Gerald Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the value to the Ministry of Defence is of the planned sales of armoured land rovers; how many have been sold in the past two years; and how many are up for sale. [130791]

Mr. Ingram: The financial returns to the Ministry of Defence for the planned sale of armoured land rovers is very much dependent on the vehicles' condition and the

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requirements of the market and therefore cannot be accurately determined. However, the average return to the MOD for each of those vehicles already sold is approximately £1,500, following completion of removal of armour and repair/making good of any damage resulting from the removal process. To date some 26 vehicles have been sold in the past two years and eight scrapped due to poor condition. There remain 82 vehicles that could be sold.

Mr. Gerald Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of the procurement process for the (a) TRACER and (b) MRAV armoured vehicle programmes. [130622]

Mr. Ingram: Both the Tactical Reconnaissance Armoured Combat Equipment (TRACER) and Multi Role Armoured Vehicle (MRAV) programmes were subject to our normal procurement processes, which are kept under regular review.

The joint United Kingdom/United States decision to terminate the collaborative TRACER programme came at the end of its Assessment Phase and took account both of an emerging, wider requirement for deployable, rapid effect forces, and the potential cost of the TRACER solution. I am satisfied, therefore, that this phase of the procurement process fulfilled its purpose, namely to take account of such factors before deciding whether to commit to a major investment decision.

On MRAV, I refer the hon. Member to the statement I made on 17 July 2003, Official Report, column 71WS, about the UK's decision to withdraw from this tri-national programme, which is managed by the Organisation for Joint Armaments Cooperation (OCCAR) on behalf of the UK, Germany and the Netherlands. Officials intend to conduct a 'Post Project Evaluation' study once the United Kingdom has completed its withdrawal from the programme.

Arms Exports

Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on Britain's arms dealings with Israel. [131364]

Mr. Ingram: Export licence applications for items to be exported to Israel are assessed by the DTI on a case-by-case basis against the consolidated European Union and national arms export licensing criteria in the light of the circumstances prevailing at the time.

The Government's procurement policy is laid out in the Defence Industrial Policy reference OP DEF 2002/1, a copy of which is in the Library of the House.

Llew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how much has been spent by his Department in each year since 1997–98 on promoting British military equipment and arms sales to foreign customers. [131111]

Mr. Ingram: The Defence Export Services Organisation (DESO) of the Ministry of Defence (MOD) plays a fundamental role in implementing the Government's policy of supporting legitimate United Kingdom defence exports.

Operating costs for DESO in each year since financial year 1997–98 are as follows.

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£ million

Financial year	Expenditure	Receipts	Net operating costs
1998–99	45.359	-29.342	16.017
1999–2000	46.473	-34.977	11.496
2000–01	55.81	-41.430	14.380
2001–02	48.930	-37.853	11.077
2002–03	56.944	-44.407	12.537

Main sources of offsetting income for DESO are three Government to Government project offices, where the customer country pays MOD costs, and the Disposal Services Agency where costs are met from revenue.

DESO raises other sources of income from charging industry for activities undertaken on their behalf where Government independence from industry is not essential and when costs can be directly identified calculated and recovered from individual companies.

Savings to the defence budget come from spreading the fixed overhead cost of equipment over the longer production runs generated by exports, from the sale of surplus military equipment to overseas governments and from Commercial Exploitation Levy receipts on exports of equipment developed using public money.

Bat Colony (RAF Halton)

Mr. Lidington: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on the progress so far and expected timetable of measures to investigate and manage the bat colony at the Princess Mary Hospital site, RAF Halton. [129398]

Mr. Caplin: Following the completion of the bat survey on the Princess Mary Hospital site in July this year, and at the request of English Nature, Defence Estates has commissioned WSP Environmental (licensed bat ecologists) to undertake evening emergent and dawn swarming surveys to establish the population size of each roost. These surveys will be completed by the middle of September.

Based on the results of these surveys, WSP Environmental will prepare a mitigation strategy that will outline the measures to be put in place to ensure the protection of the bats. This mitigation strategy will be submitted in draft to English Nature and Aylesbury Vale District Council on the 19 September and subject to their agreement will be incorporated into the Environmental Statement which will be submitted with the outline planning application for the Princess Mary Hospital site at the end of the September.

Application for the DEFRA licence, implementation of the mitigation measures and the management of the bat roosts will be the responsibility of the eventual purchaser of the site.

Bosnia

Mr. Gerald Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what estimate he has made of the timescale for EU forces taking over the SFOR mission in Bosnia. [130779]

Mr. Ingram: No decisions have yet been taken on an end date for the SFOR operation, or on the arrangements for any follow-on missions.

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Commonwealth Service Personnel

Mr. Keetch: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what surveys of (a) Commonwealth families and (b) Fijian families have been carried out to ascertain their views on life in the armed forces away from their homes; and if he will make a statement. [130850]

Mr. Caplin: The Army carried out an informal survey of Foreign and Commonwealth soldiers and their families in 2002. No other surveys have been conducted by any of the Services specifically targeting Commonwealth or Fijian families. The data revealed no large variants between different ethnic groups, and Foreign and Commonwealth soldiers have generally the same level of occurrences on most issues, although there is a slightly higher level of cases on welfare and immigration. The Adjutant General's staff are now taking forward recommendations arising from the survey.

Each Service, however, conducts Continuous Attitude Surveys of serving personnel to measure the morale and understand the concerns of their people.

The questions cover a wide variety of subjects, including families, welfare and quality of life. The surveys are sent to a randomly selected sample, which may therefore include Commonwealth or Fijians, but they are not specifically targeted.

Mr. Keetch: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make it his policy to provide (a) discounted telephone calls and (b) discounted air fares to Commonwealth servicemen and women and their families for communication with their friends and family in their country of origin; and if he will make a statement. [130851]

Mr. Caplin: There are currently no plans to provide discounted air fares or discounted telephone calls for personnel from Commonwealth countries, whose Terms and Conditions of Service (TACOS) are the same as for all other personnel. However, under the "Leave to Countries Abroad" (DOMCOL) scheme, a Service individual normally domiciled abroad may accumulate part of their Annual Leave Allowance each year over a period not exceeding five years for the purpose of visiting the country of their domicile. Under the scheme, which is subject to specific qualifying conditions, personnel are entitled to travel at public expense once in five years after five years service to the country of normal domicile. Requirements for the DOMCOL scheme include that the individual be single, but married personnel whose family are resident abroad and have been separated from their family for the whole of the five-year qualifying period may also register under the scheme.

The Ministry of Defence is aware that current TACOS vary between the Services and consequently do not offer all Commonwealth personnel the same opportunities for compassionate leave and travel arrangements as for those ordinarily domiciled in the United Kingdom, and is reviewing TACOS accordingly.

For those personnel on deployed operations the Operational Welfare Package (OWP) provides 20 minutes of publicly funded telephone calls per week for all

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personnel, regardless of nationality or country of origin and allows them to maintain telephone contact with their families and friends overseas.

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