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30 Nov 2006 : Column 810W—continued

Special Advisers

Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many of her Department’s civil servants work full-time to support departmental special advisers; and what the salary is of each such civil servant. [106512]

Mr. Lammy: The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has one member of staff working full-time in supporting its special advisers. For reasons of confidentiality, we cannot disclose an individual's exact salary but can say that it falls within the Department’s grade C pay range of £20,425-24,550.

Defence

Armed Forces Pay Review Body

Mr. Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will place in the Library transcripts of oral evidence to the Armed Forces' Pay Review Body
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taken in preparation for its 35(th )report by the (a) Chief of Defence Staff, (b) Permanent Under-Secretary, (c) Principal Personnel Officers (PPOs), (d) Director of Reserve Forces and Cadets and (e) Assistant Chief of Defence Staff (Reserves and Cadets). [103360]

Des Browne: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given on 20 March 2006, Official Report, column 18W, by my right hon. Friend the Member for Airdrie and Shotts (John Reid).

Commonwealth Citizens

Mr. Beith: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make assistance available for Commonwealth citizens who have completed service with HM Forces to return to their home country. [105943]

Derek Twigg: Commonwealth citizens completing service with Her Majesty’s Forces are not publicly funded to return to their home country. If discharged in the United Kingdom, they are funded to a point of departure from the UK. If discharged overseas, they receive funding equivalent to the notional costs of a move from their overseas unit to Catterick Garrison.

Dr. Paul Norman

Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence on what dates Dr. Paul Norman (a) started and (b) stopped working at Porton Down; and what the nature of his work was. [103386]

Derek Twigg [holding answer 27 November 2006]: Dr. Paul Norman started work for the Chemical Defence Establishment at Porton Down, now part of the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, on 20 January 1986 and died in service on 27 June 2004. During his time at Porton Down Dr. Norman held many posts but his final appointment was that of Chief Scientist for Detection and Protection. In this role Dr. Norman advised the MOD on the content and quality of the chemical defence research programme.

Far East Prisoners of War

Mr. Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the European Court ruling of 26 October 2006 on the Far East Prisoners of War Ex-Gratia Payment on the way future cases will be conducted. [101663]

Derek Twigg: On 26 October 2006, the European Court of Justice gave judgment in the case of Tas-Hagen (Case C-192/05). The Court held that European Community law does not allow a member state to have in place legislation under which its nationals would be refused a civilian war victim's benefit solely because, at the time of their application, they were resident, not in the territory of that member state, but in the territory of another member state.

There is no requirement under the UK ex gratia payment scheme for former Far East Prisoners of War and civilian internees for claimants to be resident in the UK at the time at which their applications for payment are submitted. Nor is the Government aware of any
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cases where an applicant has been denied payment because he or she has exercised his or her rights of free movement within the European Union under Community law (Article 18 EC Treaty) since 1 November 1993 (when that Article came into force). We will be taking steps to inform those who might be affected and, if any such cases are identified, we will ensure that they have not been disadvantaged as a result of exercising the right to free movement provided under the Article.

Fatal Accident Inquiries

Mr. Beith: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence in respect of how many cases of deceased UK service personnel flown back from (a) Iraq and (b) Afghanistan to Scotland there have been fatal accident inquiries; and in how many cases such inquiries have not taken place. [103731]

Des Browne: Service personnel killed in Iraq and Afghanistan have been repatriated initially to England, normally to RAF Brize Norton. Consequently, they have come within the jurisdiction of the appropriate coroner, who convenes the necessary inquests. There have been no fatal accident inquiries in Scotland arising out of these deaths.

Project 21

Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the remit is of Project 21; and if he will make a statement. [103125]

Des Browne: Project 21 is an internal exhibition about the Defence Intelligence Staff (DIS). Its purpose is to provide information to users of defence intelligence about the DIS, its roles and its capabilities in order to broaden their understanding.

Salisbury District Hospital

Robert Key: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many armed forces personnel were (a) in-patients and (b) out-patients at Salisbury District hospital in 2005. [102476]

Derek Twigg: The numbers of individuals treated at Salisbury District hospital in 2005 is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Service Personnel

Patrick Mercer: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what his Department's policy is on the publication of names of the British servicemen and women who have been honoured for service in Iraq or Afghanistan by the United States Administration. [103679]

Des Browne: The policy on the publication of the names of British servicemen and women who have been honoured for service in Iraq and Afghanistan follows precedent. The names of recipients of United States awards, which equate to British State Awards, are published in the London Gazette if unrestricted permission to wear the award has been received from the Sovereign. This policy, which dates from the second world war, applies equally to awards of other nations.


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Dr. Murrison: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many service personnel were referred to the Priory Clinic in each rank as (a) in-patients and (b) out-patients in each of the last 12 months. [104376]

Derek Twigg: The number of service personnel referred in each of the last 12 months to a Priory Group facility for treatment is as follows:

Month In-patient Out-patient

November 2005

28

0

December 2005

20

0

January 2006

26

0

February 2006

19

0

March 2006

42

0

April 2006

21

0

May 2006

23

0

June 2006

31

3

July 2006

17

3

August 2006

17

2

September 2006

32

3

October 2006

24

5


Providing information by rank could only be obtained by accessing each individual’s personal medical-in-confidence records and would risk identifying individuals in some cases.

Routine out-patient treatment for service personnel is provided by the Defence Medical Services at their Departments of Community Mental Health. Exceptionally, where a consultant states that a patient requires a short course of out-patient follow-up or continuation of therapy (e.g. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) MOD may give authority for this to be delivered by the Priory Group.

John Hemming: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether (a) the families of members of the Armed Forces killed and (b) members of the Armed Forces injured in (i) Iraq and (ii) Afghanistan before the completion of six months service in that country receive additional remuneration to offset their tax liability. [103088]

Des Browne: Service personnel who are killed or injured in Iraq or Afghanistan do not receive additional remuneration to offset their liability for tax. However, as I announced on 10 October, service personnel in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Balkans now receive a tax-free operational allowance that is paid as a lump sum at the end of their operational tour. The allowance is worth around £2,240 to personnel completing a six month operational tour, paid on a pro rata basis for longer or shorter tours, to ensure that the more junior personnel are compensated for their tax bill whilst deployed.

If a service person who is eligible for the operational allowance is injured and/or hospitalised, either overseas or in the UK, they will continue to be paid the allowance for the planned length of their deployment. Also, if a service person in receipt of the allowance is
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declared dead, their pay account will be credited with the amount of operational allowance that would otherwise have been paid had they completed their planned deployment. This has been explained in the new regulations for the operational allowance that were finalised on 3 November and published to the armed forces on the same day. A copy of the regulations has been placed in the Library of the House.

Torture Allegations (Cyprus)

Mrs. Humble: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the findings were of his investigation into allegations of torture conducted by a corporal in the Royal Highland Fusiliers at the Salt Lake outstation in Cyprus in January 2006; who conducted the investigation; and what the outcome was. [104478]

Derek Twigg: In October 2006 the Royal Military Police (Special Investigation Branch) investigated the content of a video, provided by a Sunday newspaper, purporting to show an assault in Cyprus earlier this year. A thorough investigation took place and concluded that there was no evidence of criminal activity. Those identified from the video independently confirmed that the video shows high jinks during an off-duty period with no malice intended. No complaints were lodged.

TSP04 Figures

Ann Winterton: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence when the 1 October 2006 TSP04 figures will be published. [104485]

Derek Twigg: TSP04 for 1 October 2006 was published at 9.30 am on 23 November 2006. It may be found at the following URL: http://www.dasa.mod.uk/natstats/tsp4/tsp4tabl.html. I will arrange for printed copies to be placed in the Library of the House.

International Development

Malawi

Mr. David Hamilton: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how much Malawi received from (a) his Department and (b) British charities in each of the last five years. [104536]

Hilary Benn: The information is as follows.

(a) Total DFID bilateral aid to Malawi in each of the last five years is published in Table 12.1 of “Statistics on International Development 2001-02 to 2005-06”, a copy of which is available in the Library. The relevant information is reproduced in Table 1.

Table 1: Total DFID bilateral aid to Malawi
£ million

2001-02

45.5

2002-03

49.1

2003-04

54.4

2004-05

56.2

2005-06

68.6



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In addition, DFID provides aid to partner countries through the EC and by funding a range of multilateral organisations. The imputed UK share of aid to Malawi through these routes in the years 2000 to 2004 is shown in Table 2. More recent information is not yet available.

Table 2: Imputed UK share of EC and multilateral aid to Malawi
£ million
EC Multilateral organisations Total

2000

7.3

4.1

11.3

2001

7.7

5.7

13.4

2002

4.2

1.7

5. 9

2003

5.5

9.6

15.1

2004

6.5

3.6

10.1


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