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Swan Hunter

Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what (a) applications have been made and (b) assistance has been granted for (i) Regional Selective Assistance and (ii) other Government grants by Swan Hunter in respect of its operations on Tyneside and Teesside since 1 January 2000. [143308]

Jacqui Smith: The information requested is as follows.

(i) For reasons of commercial confidentiality under Exemption 13—Third Party Commercial Confidences of the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information. I cannot comment on whether or not individual Regional Selective Assistance (RSA) applications have been made.

Details of approved RSA projects over £75,000 (name of business, offer amount, Travel to Work Area and Standard Industrial Classification description) are published quarterly in Labour Market Trends following the first payment of grant.

(ii) No other applications from or grants to Swan Hunter to assist its operations at Tyneside and Teesside since 1 January 2000 have been identified from available records.

Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what applications have been made for (a) Regional Selective Assistance, (b) other Government grants and (c) European funding in respect of Swan Hunter's Port Clarence facilities. [143309]

Jacqui Smith: The information requested is as follows.

(a) For reasons of commercial confidentiality under Exemption 13—Third Party's Commercial Confidences of the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information. I cannot comment on whether or not individual Regional Selective Assistance (RSA) applications have been made.

Details of approved RSA projects over £75,000 (name of business, offer amount, Travel to Work Area and Standard Industrial Classification description) are published quarterly in Labour Market Trends following the first payment of grant

(b) and (c) No other applications from or grants to Swan Hunter to assist its operations at Teesside have been identified from available records.

Unsolicited Emails

Mr. Bellingham: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what steps she is taking to harmonise international laws on the sending of unsolicited emails. [142131]

Mr. Timms: The UK is active in international discussions on how to tackle the global problem of unwanted e-mail advertising, both in multilateral fora (such as the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) and bilaterally with the USA and other national governments. The Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations, which took effect on 11 December, implement the EU-wide approach in the Directive on Privacy and Electronic Communications (Directive 2002/58/EC) of 18 September 2003.

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Value for Money

Malcolm Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will make a statement on value for money improvements in her Department for each year from 1997–98 to 2002–03. [143134]

Ms Hewitt: My Department's annual spring Reports contain information on departmental management and public service delivery, including on measures taken to improve efficiency and value for money.

For the years 1997–98 and 1998–99, value for money and efficiency savings were not reported separately in the Department's annual reports but were contained within the chapters on the Management of the Department.

During the period covered by the Comprehensive Spending Review (1999–2002), the Department had a strategic efficiency target to achieve savings of 2.5 per cent.of its running costs each year. In 1999–2000 the DTI achieved a saving of 2.6 per cent. of running costs (£10.6 million projected costs of £406.6 million); and in 2000–01 the Department achieved a saving of 4.6 per cent. (£19.3 million on projected costs of £418.8 million).

The CSR efficiency target was replaced for the 2000 Spending Review period (2001–04) by a Public Service Agreement Target to

"achieve value for money improvements of 2.5 per cent. a year across the Department", which was carried over into the 2002 Spending Review (2003–06). In 2001–02 value for money improvements under this target amounted to 3.79 per cent. The Department's performance for 2002–03 will be reported on in the 2004 Departmental report, which is due to be published in spring 2004.

DEFENCE

Iraq

9. Mr. Borrow: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what impact operations in Iraq have had on the future requirement for equipment. [143776]

Mr. Ingram: Operation Telic reinforced the requirement to be able in the future to deploy and sustain armed forces equipped and trained both for warfighting and peace support operations. Operations in Iraq also demonstrated the importance of integrated joint capability. These trends are reflected in the White Paper published last week.

18. Mr. Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on the security situation in Iraq. [143785]

Mr. Hoon: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave earlier today to my hon. Friend the Member for North Durham (Mr. Jones).

19. David Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on his assessment of the security situation in southern Iraq. [143786]

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Mr. Hoon: United Kingdom forces continue to provide an effective security capability in Iraq. Recent operations against smuggling, for example, have been a considerable success and were widely welcomed by the Iraqi people. Our forces are also closely engaged in developing Iraq's own security capabilities so that Iraqis can increasingly take responsibility for their own security. Already more than 10,500 Iraqi police are on patrol in the Multinational Division (South East), and more are being trained; other Iraqi security personnel are guarding vital infrastructure, facilities and coastline.

22. Mr. Carmichael: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on operations in Iraq. [143789]

Mr. Hoon: I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave earlier today to my hon. Friend the Member for North Durham (Mr. Jones).

Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what his policy is on sending Christmas gifts, donated by charities and other organisations, to British troops in Iraq; and if he will make a statement. [143803]

Mr. Ingram: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 8 December 2003, Official Report, column 270W to the hon. Member for Mid-Norfolk (Mr. Simpson).

Armed Forces

11. Bob Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what progress he has made in the past three months in filling vacancies in the Army. [143778]

Mr. Caplin: The latest available figures indicate that whole Army trained strength increased by 540 between 1 August 2003 and 31 October 2003.

Mr. Flight: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many recruits have joined the trained strength of the armed services in each of the last two years. [143346]

Mr. Caplin: I refer the hon. Member to Tri Service Publication 4: United Kingdom Armed Forces Quarterly Press Release which is available in the Library of the House and is updated each quarter.

Table 4 contains figures for Gains to Trained Strength of UK Regular Forces.

Mr. Foulkes: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the cost to his Department was of providing school places for children of Service personnel under the Service Education Allowance Scheme in each of the past 10 years. [142991]

Mr. Caplin: The total sums paid annually for boarding and day school fees by the Ministry of Defence in each of the past 10 years are not held centrally.

I refer my right hon. Friend to the answer I gave him on 3 December 2003, Official Report, columns 67–68W, about the various per child annual rates of Service Education Allowances from 1996 onwards.

Big Conversation

Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what visits (a) he and (b) Ministers in his Department (i) have made and (ii) plan to make using public funds in connection with the Big Conversation; how many civil

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servants accompanied each Minister in respect of such visits; what the cost to public funds was of visits by (A) each Minister and (B) civil servants in connection with the Big Conversation; and if he will make a statement. [143151]

Mr. Caplin: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given on 9 December 2003, Official Report, column 355W, by my right hon. Friend the Leader of the House of Commons.

Departmental Land

Mr. Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what action he has taken, and what plans he has, to derive money from land owned by his Department within the UK. [142285]

Mr. Caplin: I refer the hon. Member to the Ministry of Defence Annual Report and Accounts, a copy of which has been placed in the Library of the House.

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