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24 July 2006 : Column 791W—continued
Royal Fleet Auxiliary
Mr. Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many ships from the Royal Fleet Auxiliary have been cannibalised in the past 12 months. [86998]
Mr. Ingram: Over the past 12 months, eight ships of the RFA have had items of equipment removed for installation in other ships. This process is normally used to meet high priority operational commitments and where the items in demand are not readily available from normal sources. Equipment is then refitted to donor ships when it becomes available.
Mr. Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many ships from the Royal Fleet Auxiliary can be deployed. [86999]
Mr. Ingram: All RFA ships currently in service are deployable within the timescales set down in the current Fleet Readiness Profile.
Separated Service
Mr. Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the average number of separated service days was in the last recorded 30 day month rolling period for the Regular Army (a) infantry, (b) Royal Artillery, (c) Royal Engineers, (d) Royal Corps of Signals, (e) Royal Armoured Corps, (f) Household Cavalry, (g) Royal Electrical Mechanical Engineers and (h) Army Medical Services. [87022]
Mr. Watson: The information is listed in the following table.
Mr. Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the (a) average, (b) highest and (c) lowest number of days of separated service over the last three-year period for which figures are available was for each of the Royal Navy pinch point trades identified in his Department's annual report and accounts 2005-06. [87034]
Mr. Ingram: For the pinch points in question, separated service has only been centrally recorded since April 2004. Data are available up to the end of March 2006. The average, highest and lowest number of days of separated service recorded over this period are:
Spare Parts
Mr. Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many spare parts were (a) available and (b) required for Army Air Corps (i) Apache, (ii) Lynx and (iii) Gazelle helicopter fleets in the past 12 months. [87000]
Mr. Ingram: This information is not held centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Mr. Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many spare parts were (a) available and (b) required for the Royal Navy (i) destroyer, (ii) frigate, (iii) mine counter vessel, (iv) patrol vessel, (v) Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessel and (vi) submarine fleet in the past 12 months. [87001]
Mr. Ingram: Naval spares support is managed on a whole Fleet basis, not by class of vessel. Customers include ships, shore establishments and other services. Stock levels are set to optimise support to all customers and performance is recorded on a monthly basis. As a result, the information is not available in the format requested. Each ship has an on board allowance of spares designed to support self-sustainability for 90 days.
Special Advisers
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what role is played by special advisers in answering parliamentary questions asked of his Department. [80648]
Mr. Watson: Special advisers conduct themselves in accordance with the requirements of the code of conduct for special advisers.
Statutory Instruments
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence on what occasions a statutory instrument sponsored by his Department has been reported by the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments as defective since October 2005. [85184]
Mr. Watson: The Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments has reported two statutory instruments sponsored by the Ministry of Defence for defective drafting since October 2005.
Reports from the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments contain full details of the statutory instruments which they have reported.
Submarine Flotilla
Mr. Gerald Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what progress he has made on the establishment of a unified submarine programme management organisation within the Department; and if he will make a statement. [86665]
Des Browne: Since April 2006 submarine programme management within MOD has been unified under Director General Nuclear, who is responsible for managing delivery of the submarine programme from concept to disposal. Recent efforts have concentrated on the development of processes to support governance of the new organisation.
Sustainability Principles
Paul Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether the sustainability principles set out at paragraph 77 of his Department's Annual Report and Accounts for 2005-06, HC 1394, are applied by British forces deployed in (a) Afghanistan and (b) Iraq. [86931]
Des Browne: British armed forces deployed overseas apply United Kingdom policies and standards on sustainable development where reasonably practicable. In addition, we comply with relevant host nations' standards.
Swan Hunter
Mr. Gerald Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence when he expects to be in a position to announce the final payment to Swan Hunter following the termination of the contract for the Landings Ship Dock (Auxiliary) with that shipyard. [87049]
Mr. Ingram: Final payment to Swan Hunter will be made once all of the obligations of the settlement agreed with the company have been met.
Tavern Armoured Vehicles
Mr. Gerald Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many Tavern armoured vehicles are owned by the Ministry of Defence; and how many such vehicles are located in (a) Northern Ireland, (b) Iraq, (c) Afghanistan and (d) the UK. [87041]
Mr. Ingram: The Ministry of Defence currently has 96 Tavern vehicles located in Northern Ireland and eight in UK. None are deployed in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Territorial Army (Records)
Mr. Lancaster: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence pursuant to his answer of 10 July 2006, Official Report, column 1442W, on Territorial Army (Records), (1) what the reason is for the time taken to reply to the question; [85119]
(2) for what reason information on units to which individuals are mobilised does not include subsequent mobilisation after the initial posting. [85121]
Mr. Watson: The Reserve Training and Mobilisation Centre has no authority over the posting process and therefore will not routinely know if an individual is subsequently posted to a different unit. This is the responsibility of the Integrated Mobilisation Cell who decide where members of the Territorial Army are to be posted, and the Army Personnel Centre who issue the posting order and update the individual's Record of Service.
I regret the delay in providing the answer of 10 July which was due to an administrative oversight. New procedures for recording and tracking parliamentary questions will prevent this in future.
Tour Intervals
Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence (1) what the average tour interval of the (a) Corps of Royal Engineers, (b) Royal Corps of Signals, (c) Royal Logistic Corps and (d) Royal Electric and Mechanical Engineers has been over the last five years; [57473]
(2) how many tours each battalion of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers has undertaken in the last five years; what the (a) location and (b) length was of each; and what the length of time was between each deployment; [57475]
(3) how many regiments of the (a) Corps of Royal Engineers, (b) Royal Corps of Signals, (c) Royal Logistic Corps and (d) Royal Electric and Mechanical Engineers have achieved the harmony guideline of 24 months over the last five years. [57479]
Mr. Ingram: I refer the hon. Gentleman to the answer I gave on 7 March 2006, Official Report, column 1283W, for the information relating to the Royal Engineers, Royal Corps of Signals and Royal Logistic Corps.
The location of deployments undertaken by elements of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME) over the past five years can be found in the following table. Such deployments are normally conducted at sub-unit level and below, and vary in duration and composition of personnel involved, some involving a number of short visits to theatre. Information on the length of time between each element's deployment and the average tour interval that this would imply at Regimental level is not held centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
| Regiment | 1 February to 31 December 2001 | 1 January to 31 December 2002 | 1 January to 31 December 2003 |
| Regiment | 1 January to 31 December 2004 | 1 January to 31 December 2005 | 31 December 2005 to 1 July 2006 |
| (1) Indicates the same tour | |||
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