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Future Joint Combat Aircraft

Mr. Gerald Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether the requirement for the Future Joint
 
1 Sept 2004 : Column 718W
 
Combat Aircraft is dependent on the procurement of 50–60,000 tonne aircraft carriers; and what effect changes to the displacement of the future carriers would have on the requirement for the number of Joint Combat Aircraft. [182388]

Mr. Caplin: The physical size of any aircraft carrier will limit the maximum number of aircraft that can operate from it. The Department has not sought to fix the dimensions of the aircraft carriers during the assessment phase. The design of the ships will continue to evolve as we seek to balance the overall performance, time and cost parameters of this complex project as part of normal assessment phase activity. Decisions on the capability to be provided by CVF, including the number of aircraft capable of being deployed, will be taken at the Main Gate investment point.

Military Companies

Harry Cohen: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many approvals were given to armed forces personnel to take up appointments with military companies in each year from 1995, broken down by rank of personnel. [184732]

Mr. Caplin: The rules on acceptance of appointments by Crown servants (the "Business Appointment Rules") require all officers in the armed forces, in certain circumstances, to apply for permission before taking up an appointment with an outside organisation.

Due to a technical problem, complete information on the number of applications made by officers in the armed forces to join military (defence-related) companies since 1995 is not currently available. The information set out in the table covers only the period from 1 January 1999 to the end of June 2004. I shall write to the hon. Member with the remaining details as soon as they become available.

	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004
Navy
Admiral	2	0	0	3	2	3
Vice Admiral	0	2	0	4	0	0
Rear Admiral	3	6	3	3	3	1
Commodore	2	2	4	2	8	2
Captain	2	0	3	2	1	0
Commander	9	5	1	10	5	5
Lt. Command	7	6	10	8	17	1
Lieutenant	1	1	3	2	1	0
Army
General	1	3	3	2	1	0
Lt. General	4	10	0	0	0	1
Major General	5	1	9	3	1	1
Brigadier	7	7	4	5	4	4
Colonel	1	0	6	1	3	5
Lt. Colonel	4	19	6	7	3	2
Major	4	3	10	3	4	6
Captain	1	1	4	0	0	2
Lieutenant	0	0	2	0	1	0
RAF
Air Chief Marshall	0	9	1	1	1	0
Air Marshal	3	0	8	2	2	0
Air Vice-Marshall	1	13	6	7	5	2
Air Commodore	8	4	8	3	7	3
Group Captain	5	6	3	7	10	5
Wing Commander	24	7	10	22	16	10
Squadron Leader	9	11	7	8	8	2
Flt. Lieutenant	5	2	6	2	3	3

 
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It is not known how many appointments were taken up.

Mr. Rhadi Numa

Adam Price: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether Mr. Rhadi Numa suffered (a) physical and (b) mental duress prior to his heart attack. [186219]

Mr. Ingram: The Special Investigation Branch of the Royal Military Police concluded that Mr. Rhadi Numa had not suffered any form of mistreatment while in military custody.

Naval Dockyards (Radiation Monitoring)

Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what measures are in place for the secondary monitoring of radiation at naval dockyards. [186112]

Mr. Ingram: I refer the hon. Member to the answers I gave on 16 June 2004, Official Report, columns 938–939W, to the hon. Member for Mid Bedfordshire (Mr. Sayeed) and on 10 June 2004, Official Report, column 599W to the hon. Member for Moray (Angus Robertson). The measures, as described, are in place at the Naval Bases and Devonport Royal Dockyard, which is privately owned.

Parliamentary Questions

Adam Price: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence when he will write to the hon. Member for East Carmarthen and Dinefwr pursuant to his answer to question ref. 136924. [186026]

Mr. Ingram: I wrote to the hon. Member on 7 April 2004 and a copy of my reply was placed in the Library of the House.

PFI/PPP Contracts

Alan Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what public safeguards his Department builds into its (a) private finance initiative and (b) public private partnership contracts to prevent the private sector partner from taking excess profits by way of re-financing schemes. [184664]

Mr. Ingram: Since November 2000, it has been the Ministry of Defence's policy, in common with other Government Departments, that all Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contracts and those Public Private Partnership contracts involving the use of private finance, must contain legally binding conditions whereby any gains from refinancing are shared with the MOD on an equal basis. For contracts signed before November 2000 this right is obtained under a code of conduct agreed with industry.

Alan Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what contractual steps his Department plans to take to prevent (a) private finance initiative and (b) public private partnership partners from selling on their stakeholding. [184665]

Mr. Caplin: In common with other government departments, the Ministry of Defence does not seek to restrict unnecessarily the shareholders in Private Finance Initiative (PFI) and Public Private Partnerships (PPP) projects from transferring or selling their equity
 
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stakes to another commercial entity. Such restrictions would constrain the availability of capital for such projects and therefore adversely affect value for money. Exceptions to this can be made during the construction/introduction to service phase when some restrictions may be placed on sales or transfers of equity from shareholders who are also key subcontractors, as these might have an adverse impact on the success of the project. Additionally, provisions are usually included in MOD PFI and PPP contracts which place an obligation on the service provider and its shareholders to obtain the MOD's consent to any sale or transfer. This is to prevent any transfer that might be prejudicial to the national interest, e.g. for reasons of national security.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Mr. Keetch: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many personnel are being treated for post traumatic stress disorder after serving in Iraq; and if he will make a statement. [176804]

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence (1) how many British troops who have served in Iraq have been found to be suffering from post traumatic stress disorder; [183194]

(2) what estimate he has made of the percentage of troops who have returned from Iraq who are suffering from mental health problems. [183195]

Mr. Caplin [holding answer Tuesday 8 June 2004]: Over the period January 2003 to February 2004, the latest dates for which figures are available, 461 military personnel who served in Iraq were recorded as having experienced mental health problems. This represents 0.7 per cent. of those who had returned from deployment to Iraq at that time. Of these, 52 personnel were codified, under the International Codification of Disease system, as having Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Prisons

Tom Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many (a) men and (b) women who have been held in British-run military and civilian prisons have been released during the last 12 months; and if he will make a statement. [177241]

Mr. Ingram: The only such facility run by the UK in Iraq is the detention facility in Shaibah, which opened in December 2003. Since then 274 men and one woman have been released.

Private Finance Initiative

Mr. Lyons: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the total value of private finance initiative contracts used by his Department was in 2003. [184237]

Mr. Ingram: The total capital value of private finance initiative contracts that were live during 2003 was £3,828 million.

The payments made by the Ministry of Defence during the financial year 2002–03 in respect of private finance initiative transactions was £542 million. Further
 
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information is available in the MOD's Annual Report and Accounts 2002–03 which is published on the MOD's website www.mod.uk or from HMSO.

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