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21 Feb 2005 : Column 112W—continued
Army Legal Service
Mr. Keith Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether he intends to review the Army Legal Services; and if he will make a statement. [215702]
Mr. Caplin:
A study in 2004, by the Directorate of Management Consultancy Services into the organisational requirements of the Ministry of Defence Legal Advisor recommended that the future structure and organisation of Legal Services in the Department should be reviewed further. This work has yet to be taken forward. In addition, proposals for the forthcoming Armed Forces Bill, which will introduce a single system of Service law, will have implications for the prosecuting arm of the Director of Army Legal Services' organisation notably through the creation of a single prosecuting authority to replace the three separate Service Prosecuting Authorities.
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Autonomy plc
Mr. Bellingham: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what contracts for which his Department is responsible have been awarded to Autonomy plc. [212202]
Mr. Ingram: The Ministry of Defence has no record of existing direct contracts with Autonomy plc. Although the company may be involved with the MOD at a sub-contract level, this is not visible to us centrally.
B-52 Crash (1991)
Andrew Mackinlay: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on the loss in February 1991 of the US B-52 bomber in the Indian Ocean en route to Diego Garcia; and whether survivors were subsequently landed at Diego Garcia. [215520]
Mr. Ingram: In February 1991, a US B-52 bomber crashed in the waters just to the north of Diego Garcia after suffering a technical fault. Of the six US crew members on board, three were killed in the crash. The surviving three crew members were landed at Diego Garcia prior to being repatriated.
Battalion Costs
Mr. Wills: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the (a) personnel costs and (b) equipment and maintenance costs were of (i) an armoured infantry (Warrior) battalion, (ii) an air-portable infantry battalion, (iii) a parachute regiment battalion and (iv) a Gurkha regiment battalion in the last year for which figures are available. [199587]
Ann Winterton: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the (a) personnel and (b) equipment and maintenance costs of (i) an armoured infantry (warrior) battalion, (ii) an air-portable infantry battalion, (iii) a parachute regiment battalion and (iv) a Gurkha regiment battalion were in the last period for which figures are available. [201009]
Mr. Ingram: This information is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Correspondence
Mr. Salmond: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence when he will reply to the letter dated 11 November from the hon. Member for Banff and Buchan regarding his constituent, Mr. G. Evans of Banffshire. [206199]
Mr. Ingram: I wrote to the hon. Member on 7 February 2005.
Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence when he will reply to the letter dated 22 March 2004 from the hon. Member for Brent, East regarding Mr. Karel Bartosik. [215634]
Mr. Ingram: I replied to the hon. Member on 22 April 2004, within our 15 working day target for answering all correspondence.
Cost Recovery (DFID)
Angus Robertson:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence pursuant to his answer of 20 January 2005, Official Report, column 1080W, on military assistance
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following the tsunami, if he will list the costs his Department has recovered from the Department for International Development in relation to the relief effort following the Indian ocean earthquake and tsunami. [214418]
Mr. Ingram [holding answer 9 February 2005]: No costs have yet been recovered by the Ministry of Defence from the Department for International Development for this assistance.
Deaths in Service
Mr. McNamara: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what measures he has taken to invite the participation of bereaved relatives in hearings of Boards of Inquiry into the deaths of service personnel who have lost their lives in non-combat situations; what provision he has made to give relatives (a) full disclosure of statements available to the Board, (b) the right to address the Board, (c) the right to cross-examine witnesses and (d) copies of the transcript of proceedings at a reasonable cost; whether he has provided for the costs of legal representation to the families to be met from the public purse; and whether it is his policy that the Board of Inquiry would sit in public. [214258]
Mr. Caplin: The Services, as part of their system of support to bereaved relatives, seek to provide full information on the progress of inquiries. However, a Board of Inquiry is an internal inquiry held to investigate the facts of an incident in order to prevent recurrence. It is not a court of law and it does not fulfil the same function as a Coroner's inquest (or a Procurator Fiscal's inquiry in Scotland), which is to establish the cause of death. Boards of Inquiry do not sit in public; and members of the public, bereaved relatives and the press have no right to be present. It has been the policy of the MOD since December 1992 to make available to the next of kin, at no cost, copies of completed Board of Inquiry reports, subject only to the redaction of security sensitive information and third party data, and the avoidance of prejudice to any other investigation.
Defence Airfield Review
Mr. Keetch: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if the Defence Airfield Review has been completed; how the review differs from the Airfields Review Study; and if he will make a statement. [214270]
Mr. Ingram: The Defence Airfield Review is still in progress; there is no separate airfield review study. On the current status of the review, I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 10 January 2005, Official Report, column 21 to the hon. Member for Moray (Angus Robertson).
Defence Logistic Organisation
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many of the Department's Defence Logistic Organisation employees are located in the West Midlands region. [215173]
Mr. Ingram:
As at 1 January 2005 a total of 2,110 Defence Logistic Organisation civilian personnel were located in the West Midlands.
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The civilian personnel figure listed above uses the revised definition of civilian personnel (see www.dasa.mod.uk for details), and is based on full time equivalent (FTE) data.
For Service Personnel, data by budgetary area for the United Kingdom as a whole are collated annually and presented in Table 2.2 of UKDS, a copy of which is held in the Library of the House.
DASA are currently reviewing the source data and process by which UK Location statistics for Service Personnel are compiled. New figures will not be available until the review is complete. The outcome of this review is due to be announced later this month.
Defence Procurement
Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list (a) the defence procurement contracts with a value of greater than £5 million in each year since 1999 and (b) the companies involved in each of those contracts, indicating how many have their headquarters in (i) the UK, (ii) Scotland, (iii) the rest of Europe and (iv) the US. [214417]
Mr. Ingram: The information requested has been placed in the Library of the House.
Departmental Costs
Mr. George Osborne: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how much the Department spent on (a) stationery and (b) office supplies in each year since 1997. [213846]
Mr. Caplin: The following table details how much the department has spent on stationery and office supplies since 1997.
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