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Written Ministerial Statements
Thursday 11 November 2004
DEFENCE
Côte D'Ivoire
The Secretary of State for Defence (Mr. Geoffrey Hoon): ) The UK places the utmost priority on protecting its citizens, whether at home or abroad. We are always prepared to deploy British forces to evacuate UK nationals should their lives be placed in jeopardy. In the light of the deteriorating security situation in Côte D'Ivoire, a military reconnaissance team deployed earlier this week to assess the requirement to evacuate UK nationals. I wish to inform the House that, following this reconnaissance, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office has requested British forces to undertake an evacuation of UK nationals and others over the next few days. Some 400 people are entitled to our protection.
While I cannot give the House precise details of the mission for reasons of operational security, we have now established liaison teams in Abidjan, and at Accra in Ghana. Concurrently, we have ordered the deployment of the Spearhead lead company group comprising Royal Gurkha Rifles personnel to assist with this evacuation. The company group is pre-positioning in Accra and will be on immediate notice to be called forward to support the evacuation in Abidjan. It is intended to support this evacuation with a number of RAF transport aircraft. In total this equates to a deployment of around 300 personnel.
As an additional contingency we have redirected the landing platform dock HMS Albion towards Côte D'Ivoire, and reduced the notice to move for other force elements should they be required. We would expect the operation to last days, not weeks.
Our ability to react quickly to the situation on Côte D'Ivoire is testament to the flexibility and capability of Britain's armed forces, and to the professionalism of British servicemen and women. The UK is working in close co-operation with international partners to monitor and respond to the situation in Côte D'Ivoire as it develops. In particular, we are working with the French and Ghanaians, who have offered significant enabling support to British forces.
MOD Police Operational Report 2003–04
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence (Mr. Ivor Caplin):
The Ministry of Defence police operational report for the year 2003–04 is published today. After the introduction of the Anti-Terrorism Crime and Security Act 2001, which gave the Ministry of Defence Police extended jurisdiction, recommendations were made by the House of Commons Defence Committee that an operational report should be presented annually to Parliament.
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A copy of the report has been placed in the Library of the House.
Project Aquatrine
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence (Mr. Ivor Caplin): The contract for project Aquatrine package B, which covers the Ministry of Defence's estate in Scotland, has been awarded to Thames Water Nevis Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Thames Water whose major partner will be Scottish Water.
Project Aquatrine is one of the Government's leading and most significant public-private partnership (PPP) projects and will transfer the responsibility for the operation and maintenance of the Department's water and wastewater assets and infrastructure throughout Great Britain to private sector providers. This project will enable the transfer of environmental risk to those in the private sector who are best placed to manage it and enable the Ministry of Defence to focus on its core activities. It is a 25-year arrangement worth £2.3billion across three packages that cover the MOD's estate in Great Britain.
Following a pre-commencement period, Thames Water Nevis Ltd. in partnership with Scottish Water will commence services in March 2005.
Defence Estates and English Partnerships
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence (Mr. Ivor Caplin): Defence Estates and English Partnerships (EP) have marked their close working relationship by means of a joint working agreement. This "framework" document provides further guidance on the sale of surplus MOD property to EP in accordance with the latest Government accounting rules.
The agreement builds upon a number of recent transactions undertaken between both organisations and will allow them to work even closer together in the future to meet the Department's disposal programme and help to deliver the objectives of the "sustainable communities plan".
In particular, the document will ensure that MOD receives market value for any sales to EP and maintains market confidence.
I am placing a copy of this document in the Library of the House.
EDUCATION AND SKILLS
Supplementary Estimates
The Secretary of State for Education and Skills (Mr. Charles Clarke): Subject to parliamentary approval of any necessary supplementary estimate, the Department for Education and Skills departmental expenditure limit (DEL) (including the Office for Her Majesty's chief inspector of schools (OFSTED) which has a separate estimate) will be increased by £467,748,000 from £27,695,021,000 to £28,162,769,000 and the administration costs limits will be increased by £4,875,000 from £267,487,000 to £272,362,000.
Within the DEL change, the impact on resources and capital are as set out in the following table:
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(1) Depreciation, which forms part of resource DEL, is excluded from the total DEL, in the table above, since capital DEL includes capital spending and to include depreciation of those assets would lead to double counting.
Within the administration cost limits changes, the impact is set out in the following table:
| DfES | Original | Change | Revised |
|---|---|---|---|
| £'000 | £'000 | £'000 | |
| DfES (RfR1) | 237,487 | 4,875 | 242,362 |
| OFSTED | 30,000 | 30,000 | |
| Total | 267,487 | 4,875 | 272,362 |
The change in the resource element of the DEL of £460,704,000 arises from a £45,787,000 increase in the voted element of the resource DEL and an increase of £414,917,000 in the non-voted element of the resource DEL mainly to the Department's non-departmental public bodies.
The £45,787,000 increase in the voted element of the resource DEL arises from a £45,253,000 increase in RfR1; from the movement of £360,056,000 to non-voted resource DEL; the transfer to the Department for Constitutional Affairs of £3,705,000 for the Adoption and Children's Act implementation costs; the net transfer from the Department of Culture, Media and Sports of £2,023,000 for the schools physical education schools sport and club links project team, the schools sports partnership programme and the museums and galleries education programme; the net transfer from the Department of Health of £4,615,000 for the education health partnerships, aim higher health care and a shared nurse advisor; the transfer to the Department for Trade and Industry of £450,000 for foundation degree development; the transfer to the Department for Work and Pensions of £23,000,000 for the adult basic skills delivery of the short intensive basic skills programme; the net transfer from the Home Office of £3,492,000 for prison education capital, positive activities for young people and pay and accommodation costs, prison education offenders in Wales, contracted prisons and young peoples substance misuse partnership; the net transfer to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister of £2,100,000 for the key worker programme, Government office regional co-ordination unit, extend schools and local public service agreements; the net transfer to OFSTED of £2,601,000 for spending review 2002 funding, local education authority strategic planning, evaluation of employability and adult learning qualifications, benchmarking and qualifications framework; the transfer from the Office for National Statistics of £126,000 for neighbourhood support; the transfer to the Welsh Assembly of £591,000 for student hardship loans;
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the take up of £387,500,000 end year flexibility (EYF); the take up of new resources £40,000,000 for employer training pilots.
The £17,963,000 decrease in RFR2 arises from the movement of £20,866,000 to non-voted resource DEL; the transfer from the Department for Work and Pensions of £4,503,000 for extended schools, childcare pilots and Sure Start unit research and evaluation; transfer to OFSTED of £1,600,000 for spending review 2002 funding.
The £56,000 increase in RfR3 for the take up of invest to save budget for child contact centres.
The £18,441,000 increase in the Office of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools in England (OFSTED) from the net transfer of £4,201,000 from the Department for Education and Skills for spending review 2002 funding, local education authority strategic planning, evaluation of engaging adults in learning qualifications, benchmarking and qualifications framework; the take up of £3,632,000 end year flexibility; the take up of £10,608,000 Department for Education and Skills EYF for spending review 2002 funding.
The £4,875,000 increase in the administration cost limit arises from a £5,199,000 increase due to the reclassification of administration receipts to programme administration receipts; the transfer from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport of £23,000 for the schools physical education schools sport and club links project team; the transfer from the Department of Health £15,000 for a shared nurse advisor; the net transfer from the Home Office £112,000 for pay and accommodation costs; the transfer to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister £600,000 for Government office regional co-ordination unit and local public service agreements; the transfer from the Office of National Statistics £126,000 for neighbourhood support.
The £414,917,000 increase in non-voted resource DEL arises from the movement of £380,922,000 from voted resource DEL; the net transfer from the Department of Health of £25,330,000 for the implementation of a new consultant clinical academic contract (through HEFCE), Selly Oak and Ruskin colleges, training improvement programmes and national health service pensions indexation; the take up of £12,566,000 EYF; the reclassification of £3,901,000 from resource to capital DEL for various non-departmental public bodies own capital.
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The change in the capital element of the DEL of £7,044,000 arises from a £2,709,000 increase in the voted element of capital DEL and an increase of £4,335,000 in the non-voted element of the capital DEL.
The £2,709,000 increase to the voted element of capital DEL arises from a £2,000,000 take up of EYF in RFR1 for specialist schools.The take up of £709,000 EYF in the office of Her Majesty's chief inspector of schools in England.
The £4,335,000 increase to the non-voted element of capital DEL arises from the reclassification of £3,901,000 from resource to capital DEL for various non- departmental public bodies own capital. The take up of £434,000 EYF for partnerships for schools own capital.
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