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20 Jun 2006 : Column 1712W—continued
RAF Menwith Hill
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many people have been stopped and searched at RAF Menwith Hill by the Ministry of Defence Police Agency in each year since 2000. [76293]
Mr. Ingram: The details of how many people have been stopped and searched at RAF Menwith Hill jointly by the Ministry of Defence Police and North Yorkshire Police (NYP) are set out as follows. Such data is not held prior to September 2001.
| Stops | Searches | |
Staff Absenteeism
Danny Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many working days were lost to his Department and its Executive agencies in each year since 1997 due to staff absenteeism, expressed as the average annual number of absent days per employee; and what the estimated total cost to the Department and its agencies of absenteeism was in each year. [76893]
Mr. Watson
[holding answer 19 June 2006]: The following tables show the rates of worker sickness
absence for non-industrial and industrial civil servants, and the cost of that absence for non-industrials, in the Ministry of Defence since 1997.
| Sickness absence rate( 1) working days per FTE | Sickness absence working days | Sickness absence cost (£ million)( 2) | |
| (1) Sickness absence rates are based on FTE working days lost. For example, if a part-time employee (working 50 per cent. full-time hours) is sick for seven calendar days, this is five working days lost and 2.5 FTE working days lost. (2) Sickness absence costs for 1997 to 2004 are based on a Cabinet Office defined average daily salary rate for civilian non-industrial staff multiplied by the number of sickness absence working days lost. Comparable salary rates are not available for 2005 or the financial year 2005-06. (3) Rates are from the Annual Report “Analysis of Sickness Absence in the Civil Service” which is published by the Cabinet Office. (4) Rates for 1999 to 2004 are from UK Defence Statistics 2005 table 2.36 and are for calendar years (1 January to 31 December). The rates shown have been formed using a standardisation technique which involves adjusting unreasonably long absence lengths and removing obviously incorrect records. (5) There is no sickness absence information for non-industrial Ministry of Defence staff available for 2001 for data quality reasons. (6 )No reliable data available. Note: Excludes non-industrial Ministry of Defence staff in trading funds and Royal Fleet Auxiliaries. | |||
Territorial Army Commission
Ann Winterton: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what percentage of training courses for a Territorial Army Commission have been cancelled during university holidays because of lack of numbers in the last two years. [78217]
Mr. Watson: Between September 2004 and March 2006, three TA officer training modules which coincided or partially overlapped with the university holidays were rescheduled or cancelled due to lack of numbers. This represents 1.8 per cent. of TA officer training modules over the period. A further three modules were cancelled which did not coincide with university holidays.
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Afghanistan
Mr. Hague: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what assistance is provided by her Department for the training of (a) members of the judiciary and (b) the police force in Afghanistan; and if she will make a statement. [75064]
Margaret Beckett: Working with Italy, which retains the international lead on judicial reform in Afghanistan, and other international partners, the UK is helping Afghanistan establish a functional, accessible, equitable and sustainable justice system.
The UK has provided US$500,000 in support of the United Nations Development Programme “Strengthening the Justice System of Afghanistan” (SJSA). The SJSA programme is helping the Government of Afghanistan restructure the justice
system to bring it into compliance with the constitution; rehabilitate judicial infrastructure; strengthen service delivery capacity of justice institutions and justice professionals; promote rule of law and improve access to justice. This programme supports the Government of Afghanistan's “Justice for All” Action Plan which provides the basis for the reform of the Justice Sector over the next twelve years.
Through the Global Opportunities Fund, the UK has also funded the Bar Human Rights Committee to deliver training to key actors in the legal sector. The training, delivered in April 2006, to staff from the Ministry of Women's Affairs, Ministry of Justice, Afghan National Police and the Lawyers Association of Afghanistan focused on the re-establishment of the rule of law, women's access to justice, and human rights in international and domestic law.
Germany is responsible for co-ordinating international assistance to the Afghan government's police reform programmes. Since 2002, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has administered almost £5 million in support of these programmes through the Department for International Development/Ministry of Defence/FCO funded Global Conflict Prevention Pool (GCPP). In financial year (FY) 2002-03 the GCPP Afghanistan Strategy contributed around £112,000, in 2003-04 £2.5 million, in 2004-05 £1.6 million and in 2005-06 £760,000. This has funded two UK police trainers at the Kabul Police Academy (2002-06), five UK mentors at the Regional Police Training College in Mazar-e-Sharif (2004-06) and the creation of a Crime Scene Investigation team in Kabul (2003-05). In FY 2006-07 the GCPP will continue to support police reform through the appointment of a Senior Police Adviser to the UK-led Provincial Reconstruction Team in Lashkar Gah. The Adviser's role will include the provision of support to local police and justice officials in Helmand as well as identifying ways in which the UK can provide assistance to support the German and US police programmes.
The UK has also allocated £15 million in FY 2006-07 towards counter-narcotics law enforcement in Afghanistan. This funding will help support the Counter-Narcotics Police of Afghanistan, the lead drugs law enforcement agency, and the Afghan Special Narcotics Force (ASNF) through training, mentoring and equipping personnel. The ASNF has caused significant disruption to the drugs trade, forcing traffickers to move drugs in smaller quantities. The ASNF is playing an important role as part of the wider Afghan law enforcement effort against illegal drugs.
Mr. Hague: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what assessment she has made of the progress in the training of (a) members of the judiciary and (b) the police force in Afghanistan; and if she will make a statement. [75065]
Margaret Beckett:
Italy has been leading the international community's effort on judicial reform. Training members of the judiciary has been a central focus and progress has been made. Over the past four years a series of training programmes funded by the international community has seen over 600 Afghan judges, prosecutors and lawyers, of whom 42 were women, undergo specialised legal training. These programmes are set to continue with further projects
delivering training in legal aid, criminal and commercial law, technical assistance, financial crime, juvenile crime and gender justice to senior judges, law graduates and government officials.
Despite these efforts Afghanistan's justice system still lacks sufficiently qualified officials, adequate legal education and the necessary administrative tools and physical infrastructure. The UK will continue to support both the Afghan Government and our development partners in reforming Afghanistan's justice sector.
Germany has been leading efforts to train and reform the Afghan national police with assistance from the US. Since August 2002, there have been some considerable achievements. Over 50,000 police of all ranks and branches have been trained at the re-established Police Academy and at five regional training centres. A pay and rank review is under way aiming to reduce the current top-heavy structure and raise police salaries in order to attract the best candidates. An international conference on border management and police was co-hosted by Afghanistan and Germany in Qatar in February. It endorsed the findings that replenishment of the Law and Order Trust Fund, used to partly fund police salaries, was critical to the success of police pay and rank reform. We support this finding and the valuable work that the international community, in particular Germany and the US are putting into police training and reform.
Mr. Hague: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what funds her Department has provided to support the training of the police force in Afghanistan in each year since 2002; and if she will make a statement. [75067]
Margaret Beckett: Since 2002, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has administered almost £5 million in support of the Afghan Government's police reform through the Department for International Development/Ministry of Defence/FCO funded Global Conflict Prevention Pool (GCPP). In financial year 2002-03 the GCPP Afghanistan Strategy contributed around £112,000, in 2003-04 £2.5 million, in 2004-05 £1.6 million and in 2005-06 £760,000. This funding has seen two UK police trainers at the Kabul Police Academy (2002-06), five UK mentors at the Regional Police Training College in Mazar-e-Sharif (2004-06) and the creation of a Crime Scene Investigation team in Kabul (2003-05).
Mr. Hague: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent discussions she has had with the (a) Secretary of State for International Development and (b) the Secretary of State for Defence regarding the security situation in Afghanistan; and if she will make a statement. [75072]
Margaret Beckett: There are regular meetings at ministerial and official level between the three departments on a range of issues relating to UK support to help establish a stable and prosperous Afghanistan. The security situation remains central to these discussions.
Our dialogue ensures the UK’s efforts in Afghanistan remain on track. The recent deployment of a fully-integrated multi-disciplinary military/civilian mission to Helmand Province demonstrates the importance of a continued cross-government approach.
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