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21 Feb 2005 : Column 121W—continued

Overseas Defence Estates

Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list the defence estates the Department has overseas. [215175]

Mr. Caplin: The MOD overseas estate comprises airfields, ports, warehousing, barracks, schools, technical facilities and supporting infrastructure (power, water, wastewater, communications, etc.), Service Family Accommodation (SFA), commercial facilities and training areas. Details are as follows.
 
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CountryFacility
BahamasAutos Island
BelizePrice Barracks—HQ British Army Training Support Unit Belize
4other training areas
adventure training facility
Brunei(facilities owned and operated by Brunei Government)
CanadaSuffield—British Army Training Unit Suffield
Goose Bay—in process of handback
Wain right Camp—in process of handback
KenyaKifaru Camp Nairobi—British Army Training Unit Kenya
Extensive leased up-country training areas
NepalKathmandu—HQ Brigade of Gurkhas Nepal, Pokhara
NorwayStavangar, Bardufoss
SingaporeSembawang
South AtlanticFalkland Islands, Ascension Island and St. Helena— weather station
USAWashington DC (leased SFA)
CyprusEpiskopi Garrison
RAF Akrotiri
Dhekelia Garrison
Troodos/Olympus
Aya Nikolaos Station
Diego GarciaPort and Storage facilities (all other facilities owned and operated by the USAF)
GibraltarGibraltar Garrison and other facilities
Falkland IslandsMount Pleasant Airfield
Various hill top Radar/Tech sites
Various helicopter Re-fuelling sites

All of the estate in Germany is owned by the German government and occupied by MOD under SOFA and its supplementary agreements. The German estate is located within five main garrison areas:
CountryFacility
Hohne Garrison, including:Fallingbostel and Celle
Osnabrück Garrison, including:Munster and Rhiene
Gütersloh Garrison, including:Herford, Bielefeld, Lubbecke and Bunde
Paderborn Garrison, including:Sennelager and Hameln
Rhine Garrison, including:JHQ Rheindahlen, Dulmen and Elmpt

Additionally there are major training areas located at Senne and Haltern and smaller training areas in Paderborn, Gütersloh, Osnabrück and Rhine Garrisons.

In addition, a small numbers of leased properties are occupied in:
CountryFacility
BelgiumBrussels, Antwerp, Mons
GermanyRamstein
HollandBrunssum
ItalyRome, Milan, Naples, Verona
NorwayStavangar
PortugalLisbon
SpainMadrid, Valencia
TurkeyIzmir, Istanbul
RussiaMoscow (one residence)

Parachute Battalion (Costs)

Mr. Russell Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the cost of (a) an in role parachute battalion and (b) a parachute battalion not in role was in the last year for which figures are available. [201002]


 
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Mr. Ingram: This information is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Parking Spaces

John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many car parking spaces are provided for those (a) working in and (b) visiting his Department. [208929]

Mr. Caplin: Provision of car parking space on defence establishments worldwide is determined locally, taking into account availability of public transport links, space on the establishments, and operational requirements.
 
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Centrally held records of defence estate assets do not identify provision of car parking space, and would require disproportionate cost to collect this information.

Pendle Hill Munitions

Mr. Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list the munitions recovered on Pendle Hill, Lancashire, in the last four years. [213914]

Mr. Caplin: Since 1 January 2001, a total of 95 live items and 5478 expended items have been cleared from Pendle Hill, Lancashire. This data is correct as at 1 Febuary 2005.
Live items
Expended items
NatureNumberNatureNumber
2001Mortar 312Mortar 2 smoke376
Mortar 2 Smoke2Fin Mortar 3861
Mortar 21Fin Projectile Infantry Anti Tank (PIAT)1
PIAT1
Mortar 2 high explosive (HE)2
2003Mortar 318Mortar 2 Smoke299
Mortar 2 HE4Fin Mortar 31,445
Mortar 2 Smoke1Fin Mortar 213
Mortar 2 Parachute illumination (Para Ilium)2PIAT1
PIAT1Fuse mortar 3107
Mortar 3 HE4Mortar 37
Mortar 3 HE1
Fuse15
Mortar Spigot practice1
mortar 2 Para Ilium2
2004Mortar 3203 Fin Mortar1,726
PIAT2Fin PIAT1
Fuse mortar 313 Fuse mortar185
Mills grenade no 3612 mortar4
Mortar 2 Para Ilium22 mortar Para Ilium1
Mortar 2 smoke142 mortar smoke342
Mortar 3 HE33 mortar26
Mortar 2 HE33 mortar HE18
PIAT9
PIAT spigot1
spigot2
20052 Mortar smoke13 Fin mortar18
3 fuse mortar4
2 mortar smoke12

Pensions

Mr. Gerald Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many service personnel in each service have opted to move to the new pension arrangements; and what proportion of serving personnel that represents in each case. [215501]

Mr. Caplin: These details will not be available until April 2006. Individual Offers to Transfer packs will be sent to members of the current scheme between mid July 2005 and the end of October 2005, for a Transfer Date of 6 April 2006.

Pentagon (Nuclear Weapons Plans)

Llew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what information he has received from his United States counterpart in respect of Pentagon plans to build earth-penetrating nuclear weapons designed to destroy hardened underground targets. [214640]

Mr. Hoon: None. Although US policy is a matter for that Government, I understand that to date it has only sought to conduct studies into the concept of such weapons and has no plans to build any.

Postage

Mr. George Osborne: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how much has been spent on postage by the Department in each year since 1997. [215021]

Mr. Caplin: The cost of postage is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Rapid Deployment

Mr. Sarwar: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what steps his Department is taking to procure equipment to improve the rapid deployability of the British armed forces. [213368]


 
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Mr. Ingram: The 'Future Capabilities' White Paper published in July 2003 explains how we plan to make the armed forces more flexible and deployable. At sea, deployability has already been improved through six new Roll-On-Roll-Off ships. A robust and modern amphibious capability, based around two new ships, HMS Alibon and Bulwark, supported by the Bay Class landing ships, will provide a step change in our ability to launch and support forces ashore. For the Army, there will be a shift in emphasis towards light and medium weight forces. These will be supported by a number of new equipment programmes, including the Future Rapid Effects System family of vehicles and the Light Mobile Artillery Weapon System. In the air, aswell as introducing 25 A400M aircraft from 2011, wenow intend to buy our current fleet of four leased C-17 aircraft together with one additional aircraft, significantly increasing our strategic lift capability.

Recruitment (Scotland)

Mr. Sarwar: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on recruitment levels to the armed forces in the past three months from applicants in Scotland. [213338]

Mr. Caplin: The number of personnel recruited into the armed forces other ranks from applications registered in Scotland from 1 October to 31 December 2004 was 322. Information for officers is not available on a regional basis.


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