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Colombia
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence pursuant to the answer of 17 July 2006, Official Report, column 209W, on Colombia, what his assessment is of the current level of risk to UK personnel involved in the bespoke counter narcotics training provided to Colombian law enforcement agencies. [88237]
Mr. Ingram: The risk to any personnel associated with counter narcotics activities in Columbia is potentially very high.
Corporate Hospitality
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence on how many occasions he has accepted corporate hospitality in the last 12 months. [67527]
Des Browne: Paragraph 5.28 of the ministerial code sets out the rules on the registration of hospitality.
Correspondence
Sir Michael Spicer: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence when the Minister for Veterans will reply to the letter from the hon. Member for West Worcestershire of 31 May 2006 (Ref: 03319/2006). [87936]
Mr. Watson: I wrote to the hon. Member on 21 July 2006.
Counter-terrorism
Paul Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what budget has been made available to support his Department's Counter-Terrorism Science and Technology Centre at Porton Down for 2006-07. [86928]
Mr. Ingram: Some £5 million has been made available in 2006-07 to support the Department's Counter-Terrorism Science and Technology Centre. Planned consumption of resources in 2006-07 will take into consideration funding already available through MOD's research budget in support of related equipment projects to ensure value for money is achieved. Once fully established it is anticipated that the centre will attract further third party funding from other Government Departments and industry through joint projects.
Defence Planning Assumptions
Mr. Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether a review of the Defence planning assumptions will be conducted before the forthcoming comprehensive spending review. [87182]
Des Browne: Defence planning assumptions are reviewed as part of the Department’s routine strategic planning cycle. This work is about to begin and is planned to complete in spring 2008.
Defence Procurement Agency
Mr. Gerald Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what progress has been made in the piloting of the operating framework for the Defence Procurement Agency; and if he will make a statement. [86659]
Mr. Ingram: As stated in the Ministry of Defence's response of 7 July 2006 to the House of Commons Defence Committee's report on the Defence Industrial Strategy, the DPA has completed development work regarding the project and programme management element of the operating framework, drawing on industry best practice. This work will form the basis of a wider Acquisition Operating Framework encompassing all of the Department's acquisition business.
From September 2006 to February 2007 we will undertake a pilot with a number of project teams from the Defence Procurement Agency and the Defence Logistics Organisation to evaluate our proposed approach to embedding project and programme best practice and to measure the benefits achieved. This will de-risk the full roll-out of the Acquisition Operating Framework which is due to commence in 2007.
Departmental Teams
Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the (a) function is and (b) annual cost in each of the last three years was of the departmental (i) Diversity and Work Balance Team, (ii) Ethnic Monitoring Team, (iii) Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Team, (iv) Disability Steering Committee Team and (v) Gender Panel; whether he has considered the merits of amalgamating these bodies into one unit; and what plans he has for their future. [86167]
Mr. Watson [holding answer 19 July 2006]: The function of the Diversity and Work Life Balance (DWLB) Team is to: ensure the Department complies with, and reports against, the extant and emerging UK and EU legal requirements; develop and support the implementation of associated policy and guidance for the Department’s 100,000 civilians; support the achievement of a work force truly representative of the community it serves; and assist the Department in being an employer of choice through contributing to the development of a contemporary employment framework. The salary and associated costs of the DWLB Team over the past three years is:
| £ | |
The
Ethnic Minorities Steering Committee (Ethnic Monitoring Team (sic)),
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Forum (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual
and Transgender Team (sic)) Disability Steering Committee and Gender
Panel all essentially perform the same function. This is to support the
Department taking diversity forward by providing expertise, relevant to
the strand they represent, presenting an avenue for members of
under-represented groups to have their issues raised
and considered, and also to take the Department’s message on
diversity back to people within their strands. The members of the
Committees, Forum and Panel are MOD employees who volunteer and perform
the work in addition to their usual MOD duties, in work time.
Therefore, we do not have separate cost
information.
There are no plans to amalgamate these bodies into one unit. They provide an expertise relevant to their particular diversity strand and while they continue to be effective in moving the Department’s diversity agenda forward, we propose to continue with their operation.
Emission Permits
Michael Gove: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many carbon dioxide emission permits have been allocated to military establishments; and what the actual emissions were for each military establishment included in the EU Emissions Trading scheme in its first year of operation. [86470]
Mr. Watson: I can confirm 267,428 carbon dioxide emission permits were allocated to military establishments. The following table details how many carbon dioxide emission permits were allocated to each Ministry of Defence establishment, and the level of emissions during the first year (2005-06) of operation of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme.
| Ministry of Defence Site | Annual emission permits | Actual emissions 2005 (tonnes Carbon Dioxide) |
Forces Recruitment
Mr. Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many staff were recruited by the (a) RAF and (b) Royal Navy in each year since 1997, broken down by personnel type. [85755]
Mr. Watson: Intake from civil life to the United Kingdom Regular Royal Navy and Royal Air Force broken down by Officers and other ranks and branch or trade group is shown in the following tables:
| Naval Service Officer intake from civil life by branch | |||||||||
| 1997-98 | 1998-99 | 1999-2000 | 2000-01 | 2001-02 | 2002-03 | 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | |
| (1
)Queen Alexandra’s Royal Naval Nursing
Service. | |||||||||
| Naval Service ratings intake from civil life by branch | |||||||||
| 1997-98 | 1998-99 | 1999-2000 | 2000-01 | 2001-02 | 2002-03 | 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | |
| RAF Officer intake from civil life by branch | |||||||||
| 1997-98 | 1998-99 | 1999-2000 | 2000-01 | 2001-02 | 2002-03 | 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | |
| (1
)Princess Mary’s Royal Air Force Nursing
Service. | |||||||||
UK Regular Forces includes Nursing services and excludes Full Time Reserve Service personnel and mobilised reservists. It includes trained and untrained personnel.
Figures include re-enlistments and rejoined reservists.
Due to the rounding methods used, totals may not always equal the sum of the parts. When rounding to the nearest 10, numbers ending in five have been rounded to the nearest multiple of 20 to prevent systematic bias.
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