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6 Dec 2004 : Column 340W—continued

Private Land (Military Exercises)

Mr. Mark Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on (a) the use of private land by his Department for military exercises and (b) the mechanism for obtaining consent for such use from private landowners. [200742]

Mr. Caplin: The use of private land for military training generally involves long standing relationships between the Ministry of Defence and private landowners. Consent for the use of private land is obtained via a variety of means ranging from formal leases to periodic ad-hoc agreements with the owners.

Staffing

Mr. Russell Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many (a) established and (b) non-established personal staff support (i) the Chief of the Defence Staff and (ii) the Chief of the General Staff, broken down by (A) rank, (B) job title, (C) regiment and (D) annual salary. [201076]

Mr. Caplin: CDS' Personal Office consists of the following:


 
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CGS' Personal Office consists of the following:

All of these are established posts.

Timber

Mr. Breed: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what plans his Department has to fund the establishment and maintenance of a central point of expertise on timber. [200577]

Mr. Caplin: We are currently considering our position on the funding of a central point of expertise for timber.

UK-US Mutual Defence Agreement

Llew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence when the amendments to the US/UK 1958 Mutual Defence Agreement on atomic energy matters will enter into force; and what opportunities there will be for hon. Members formally to object to the coming into force;. [201184]

Mr. Llwyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence when he expects the Mutual Defence Agreement with the United States to be renewed. [202006]

Mr. Hoon: The Amendment to the 1958 US/UK Mutual Defence Agreement, including the renewal of Article III (bis) for a further 10 years, was laid before Parliament on 21 June for a period of 21 days under the Ponsonby Rule. This period ended on 22 July. The Amendment has also now completed the period it was required to lie before Congress and will shortly be brought into force by an Exchange of Notes. The Government has previously made clear that it would not undertake to find time to debate renewal of a longstanding agreement such as this.

Veterans' Illnesses (Gulf War)

Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what assessment he has made of the report of the US Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses; and if he will make a statement. [200076]

Mr. Caplin: The Ministry of Defence is aware of the report of the US Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses and has noted its findings. The report is a review of some existing research and we were already familiar with most of the material presented.
 
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DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER

Departmental Costs

Mr. Edward Davey: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what steps he has taken to ensure that telephones in his Department are not used by staff for making unauthorised personal calls to international numbers. [201022]

Phil Hope: Access to all international numbers is only granted to staff who have a business need to make such calls. Calls to some foreign mobile networks, are barred completely. Call logs are monitored to ensure compliance.

Mr. Edward Davey: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what the estimated cost is to his Department of unauthorised personal calls made by members of staff to (a) domestic and (b) international numbers. [201023]

Phil Hope: Automatic logs are kept of all calls and regular reviews carried out. From those reviews there is little evidence of unauthorised use by members of staff. When any has been identified the cost has been recovered.

Fidlers Ferry Power Station

Helen Jones: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister, if he will make a statement on the effect of the transfer of Fidlers Ferry power station from the national list to the local list on the Local Authority Business Growth Incentive Scheme; and how much money was lost to Warrington borough council as a result. [201514]

Mr. Raynsford: Warrington has made representations about the effect of the transfer of the power station on its ability to benefit from Local Authority Business Growth Incentive Scheme (LABGI), as part of the recent consultation exercise. These and other representations will be considered very carefully in deciding the final shape of the scheme.

An authority's ability to benefit from LABGI will depend not only upon the final design of the scheme but crucially on how well it performs in generating economic growth. No authority will lose money as a result of LABGI since the funding, which is worth up to £1 billion in England and Wales in the first three years, is entirely additional.

Fire Service

Kate Hoey: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what changes have occurred to the entry level fitness tests for the fire service since 2000. [201856]

Phil Hope: The 1978 regulations which included entry level fitness tests were replaced on 25 March 2004 by the Fire Services (Appointments and Promotion) Regulations (England and Wales) 2004. These included a general requirement that an appointee's general state of health and fitness should be satisfactory to carry out the duties of the role. Consultants who are experts in the field of physical and psychological testing were appointed by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister to draw up new advisory point of entry selection tests in consultation with stakeholders. Concerns that previous fitness tests may have had specific adverse impact on the
 
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recruitment of women are being addressed in the development of the new tests, which are expected to be available in May 2005. Pending the completion of these tests, it is the responsibility of each fire and rescue authority to ensure that any tests or procedures used for the selection and appointment are relevant to the job and do not unfairly discriminate on any grounds.

Gypsies and Travellers

Mr. Luff: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister, if he will make it his policy to license caravans used by Gypsies and Travellers to facilitate identification of the owner when this is needed to enforce planning law and policy. [201594]

Keith Hill: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister does not intend to introduce such a policy. If licensing and registration of caravans was to be introduced, it is very difficult to see how it could be restricted to particular categories of keeper, such as "Gypsies" or "Travellers".

Mr. Luff: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister, under what ethnic status Gypsies and Travellers are classified in relation to planning law. [201668]

Keith Hill: The planning definition of a gypsy does not rely on ethnicity. Gypsies are defined in section 16 of the Caravan Sites Act 1968 as persons of nomadic habit of life, whatever their race or origin, who wander or travel for the purpose of making or seeking their livelihood.

Mr. Luff: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister whether regional spatial strategies are required to take account of provisions for Gypsies and Travellers; and whether they will specify pitch numbers that must be provided by each local authority in the region. [201670]

Keith Hill: Gypsy and Traveller accommodation needs must, in the future, be assessed by each local authority as part of the overall local housing assessment process. Data from these assessments will feed into the evidence which underpins Regional Housing and Spatial Strategies. The Regional Planning Body will consider overall regional need and put into the Regional Spatial Strategies (RSS) the amount of site provision needed in each local authority area during the RSS period.

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