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16 Oct 2007 : Column 938W—continued
1997: One letter;
1998: No record of any letters being issued;
1999: Two letters;
2000: Five letters;
2001: Five letters;
2002: Six letters;
2003: Four letters;
2004: Three letters;
2005: Four letters;
2006: Nil;
2007: Nil.
Defence Export Services Organisation: Offices
Jim Cousins: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence where the overseas offices of the Defence Export Services Organisation are situated; when each office was established; how many staff are employed in each; and what the cost of each (a) was in (i) 2005-06 and (ii) 2006-07 and (b) is expected to be in 2007-08. [156339]
Des Browne: The information on overseas offices of the Defence Export Services Organisation (DESO) is set out in the following table. The entries for Kuwait and Saudi Arabia refer to trade promotion offices. These are separate from the Project Offices in those countries, information about which I gave the hon. Member in a written answer on 9 October 2007, Official Report, column 504W. The two project offices were established in Saudi Arabia in 1987, and in Kuwait in 1993. Customer governments meet the costs of the project offices and I am withholding that information as its release would be likely to prejudice relations with those governments.
| DESO Overseas Offices | |||||
| Office | Date established | Staff numbers April 2007( 1) | Cost 2005-06 (£000)( 2) | Cost 2006-07 (£000)( 2) | Cost 2007-08 (£000)( 2) |
| (1) Figures include locally employed staff. Part-time staff are counted as whole. (2) Costs for 2007-08, and some costs in the earlier years, have been estimated. (3) Office closed June 2007. (4) Office closed in March 2007 (5) Post discontinued January 2007. | |||||
Departments: Secondment
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many staff are seconded to his Department from outside Government; from which outside body each has been seconded; and what the length is of each secondment. [157864]
Derek Twigg: This information is not held centrally and could be provided only at a disproportionate cost.
Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft
Mr. Cameron: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what progress has been made on the Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft programme; and if he will make a statement. [157953]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: AirTanker Ltd, the Department’s Preferred Bidder, is currently undertaking a funding competition to raise the required private finance for the Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft procurement. The consortium aims to complete this process as soon as possible.
Iraq: Peacekeeping Operations
Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the average tour intervals are for each unit deploying to Iraq in the autumn. [154252]
Des Browne: Details of the most recent tour intervals for the formed Army units due to deploy to Iraq in November and December are as follows:
The formation of 1 Lancashire Regiment and 2 Lancashire Regiment involved the amalgamation of 1 King's Own Royal Border Regiment, 1 King's Regiment and the Queen's Lancashire Regiment, with both of the new regiments containing personnel from each of the three original regiments. It is not possible therefore to calculate meaningful historic average tour intervals for 1 Lancashire Regiment but, for information, 1 King's Own Royal Border Regiment returned from its previous deployment in April 2006 (equivalent to an 18 months interval) and 1 King's Regiment and the Queen's Lancashire Regiment returned from their previous deployments in October 2003 (equivalent to a 50 month tour interval).
Royal Air Force ground units operate differently to those of the Army. While a unit might be deployed for four months, RAF personnel can rotate through the unit rather than remain deployed with it throughout. Therefore unit and personnel tour intervals are not necessarily the same.
| Unit | Tour Interval (based upon last operational tour and current deployment) |
Mr. Blunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the total annual cost was to the (a) defence budget and (b) reserve of payments made to servicemen arising from service in (i) Iraq and (ii) Afghanistan in the latest period for which figures are available. [157086]
Des Browne [holding answer 15 October 2007]: The net additional cost for service personnel for service in Iraq and Afghanistan in the last period for which figures are available is as follows:
| Operating cost 2006-07 | |
| £000 | |
| Service manpower | Total outturn |
These net additional costs are met from the HM Treasury Reserve and not from the Defence budget.
Military Aircraft
Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many aircraft are in service in the RAF, broken down by type. [157047]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 9 October 2007, Official Report, column 509W.
Military Aircraft: Manpower
Ann Winterton: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what percentage of those who set out to be pilots of (a) Eurofighter, (b) GR7 Harrier, (c) Merlin, (d) Lynx, (e) Sea King, (f) Chinook and (g) Apache were successful in each of the last three years. [157076]
Derek Twigg: After extensive early flying training, the RAF personnel are streamed, according to aptitude into one of three streams: Fast-jet (FJ), Rotary-wing (RW) or Multi-engine (ME). All of the Army personnel go to RW, most of the Navy personnel follow this same route, although some go on to FJ training. All of this ab initio training is conducted within the Air Force system.
Following successful completion of ab initio training pilots enter an Operational Conversion Unit (OCU) where they learn to operate the specific aircraft type for which they have been selected. The following table shows pass rates for pilots entering the OCU:
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