| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
19 Jan 2007 : Column 1370W—continued
Recruiting targets for Territorial Army units in Scotland for 2006-07 are detailed as follows:
| Unit | Soldier recruiting target | Officer recruiting target |
Type 45 Destroyers
Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what assessment his Department has made of the effect on operational capability of the reduction in the order for the new Type 45 destroyer from eight to six. [114136]
Mr. Ingram: No decision has been taken to reduce the number of Type 45 destroyers to be ordered. I also refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 27 November 2006, Official Report, column 364W, to the hon. Member for Portsmouth, South (Mr. Hancock).
UK Troops: Rest Periods
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the target period of rest is between operational tours for UK troops. [114763]
Mr. Ingram: The armed forces recognise that a degree of separation from home and family is an accepted part of service life and take this into account when calculating harmony, a manpower planning tool used to define force structures. The services report against two guidelines: an individual harmony guideline which stipulates the maximum length of separated service that an individual should serve within any given period, and defined tour intervals to determine the frequency with which formed units (an infantry battalion, for example) should deploy on operations. Both measures are important because, at times, personnel deploy with units other than their own to fill gaps. Due to different operating patterns, guidelines for the three services vary.
Army harmony guidelines are that individuals should not exceed 415 days of separated service in any
period of 30 months. At unit level, tour intervals should be no less than 24 months. Royal Navy harmony guidelines are that no individual should exceed 660 days of separated service in a three year rolling period. Over a similar time span, ships or other units should not be deployed for more than 60 per cent. of their time. Royal Air Force harmony guidelines are that no more than 2.5 per cent. of individual personnel should serve more than 140 days of detached duty in any period of 12 months, while unit tour intervals should not be less than 16 months.
Works of Art
Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many works of art were stolen from his Department in each of the last 10 years; what value of art was stolen; and what measures were taken to recover it. [115057]
Derek Twigg: The information is shown in the following table.
| Number of works of art stolen | Value of works of art stolen (£) | |
All losses were investigated, but no works of art were recovered or individuals prosecuted for their theft.
Duchy of Lancaster
Central Office of Information: Expenditure
Mr. Heald: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what the projected expenditure of the Central Office of Information spending on public relations, marketing and advertising is in 2006-07. [114091]
Mr. McFadden: COI’s projected expenditure, by service, for 2006-07 is:
| £ million | |
The total amount shown in the table is an estimated reduction of 4 per cent. on 2005-06.
Information Technology
Steve Webb: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster how much was spent on information technology by those parts of the public sector represented on the Chief Information Officer Council as referred to on page 23 of the Chief Information Officer's Transformational Government Annual Report 2006 in each financial year since 1997-98, broken down by agency and department. [116913]
Mr. McFadden: This information is not held centrally and could be collected only at disproportionate cost.
The figures for 2005-06 are set out in the Transformational Government Annual Report 2006 (Cm 6970), a copy of which is available in the Library for members. This is the first time this information has been collated in this way and we expect to build on this information in the future.
National School of Government
Mr. Heald: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster if she will list the individual training courses that (a) have been and (b) are provided to Ministers by the National School of Government. [114117]
Mr. McFadden: This is a matter for the National School of Government. The National School's principal and chief executive will write to the hon. Member and a copy of his reply will be placed in the Library for the reference of Members.
Pensions
Mr. Heald: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what the average Exchequer contribution towards a civil service final salary pension is, as a percentage of pensionable salary. [114092]
Mr. McFadden: Employer contribution rates for members of the principal civil service pension scheme (PSCPS) are assessed for each of four ranges of pay levels and are set at a level, which together with employee contributions, is intended to meet the costs of benefits accruing in the year. This approach is set out in Resource Accounts 2005-06 of Cabinet Office: Civil Superannuation, a copy of which is available in the Library for the reference of Members. The current employer contribution rates expressed as a percentage of pensionable pay are shown in the following table.
| Rate of employer contribution as a percentage of pensionable pay | |
| Salary band | Percentage |
The average employer contribution is estimated at 19.4 per cent. of pensionable pay. A higher rate, of 26.5 per cent. of pensionable pay, is payable by the Prison Service for prison officers employed before September 1987 and who are entitled to enhanced benefits.
Policy Review Working Groups
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster how delegates will be selected for the deliberative forums announced on 2 January 2007 as part of the policy review working Groups. [115232]
Mr. McFadden: Ipsos MORI have been engaged to recruit the participants in the deliberative forums being organised as part of the public engagement strand of the policy review. They will be recruited according to Market Research Society guidelines with the aim of achieving a representative sample of the general population.
Education and Skills
“DFES Children's Services, The Childcare Market"”
Mr. Paul Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what response he has made to the PricewaterhouseCoopers report ‘DFES Children's Services, The Childcare Market’ commissioned by his Department. [116970]
Beverley Hughes: The PricewaterhouseCoopers report “DfES Children's Services, The Childcare Market” was one of a series of five publications published in August 2006 covering four markets and an overview report.
My Department has made no formal response to this report, but has taken on board many of the findings from the five reports within our policy thinking and methodology, for example, in the Care Matters Green Paper that is currently going through its formal consultation period.
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |