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19 Oct 2007 : Column 1343W—continued


The increase in the number of overpayments in April was due primarily to transitional data errors from the Army legacy systems where elements were not picked up as expected by the JPA system. Records were corrected in time for the May payroll.

In August 35,553 incorrect payments of £3.00 were made to the discontinued RN and Royal Marines Dependants’ Fund. The error has been corrected and the money will be re-credited to pay accounts in October.

In addition 16,364 underpayments of Home to Duty Travel claims for RN reservists occurred. The error has been corrected and the claims have reprocessed for payment in September.

Armed Forces: Personnel Management

Mr. Roger Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what progress has been made on the full implementation of the Joint Personnel Administration project; and if he will make a statement. [154546]

Derek Twigg: The Joint Personnel Administration (JPA) system is one of the most complex business change projects in either the private or public sector. It has been successfully rolled-out on time to all three
19 Oct 2007 : Column 1344W
Services; to the RAF from April 2006; to the RN from October 2006; and to the Army from March 2007.

Since the initial roll-out of JPA to the RAF much has been achieved to improve the quality of the service being provided and to address problems. Personnel are more familiar with the new system and the business processes that it supports. But we are still in a transitional phase and there will be a further period of ‘bedding down’ which is bound to highlight the need for further business process, technical and training changes.

JPA now provides a stable, modern platform to support our Services. However, like all major change programmes of this complexity it will take a period of further refinement in order to exploit its full potential. I remain fully committed to delivering an excellent pay and personnel administration service to our armed forces.

Armoured Fighting Vehicles

Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many armoured vehicles are in service with the Army, broken down by type. [157042]

Mr. Bob Ainsworth: The number of armoured vehicles of each type that are in service with the Army as at 10 October 2007 are shown in the following table.

Vehicle t ype Number in s ervice in 2007

AS 90

146

Combat Engineer Tractor (CET)

78

Challenger 2 (CR 2) Fleet

345

Challenger Armoured Repair and Recovery Vehicle (CRARRV)

81

Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance (Tracked) (CVR(T)) Fleet

1118

FUCHS

11

FV432 Fleet

1492

Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS)

59

SAXON Fleet

413

SHIELDER

30

STORMER

148

TROJAN

14

TITAN

16

WARRIOR Fleet

385

VIKING

40


These figures include those armoured vehicles used for training and undergoing in depth maintenance. Not included are those vehicles considered ‘protected’ such as the MASTIFF protected patrol vehicles.

Departments: Internet

Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many hits the (a) most popular and (b) the least popular website run by his Department has received since 1 January 2007. [157866]

Derek Twigg: Total page views for the most popular and the least popular websites run by the Ministry of Defence are as follows:


19 Oct 2007 : Column 1345W
Site + URL Total page views (number of times individual pages in the site accessed)

Most popular

RAF: http://www.raf.mod.uk

(1)36.2 million

Least popular

MOD Art Collection: www.art.mod.uk

(2)2,000

(1) Figures for January—October 2007.
(2) Financial year 2006-07.

Military Fighting Vehicles

Ann Winterton: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence when the Mastiff vehicle will be (a) delivered to the UK and (b) shipped to theatre. [157077]

Mr. Bob Ainsworth: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 9 October 2007, Official Report, column 202, during the Defence Procurement debate.

Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence (1) how many of the ordered 140 Mastiff vehicles announced during the Prime Minister’s statement on Iraq of 8 October 2007, Official Report, columns 21-38, will be sent to (a) Iraq and (b) Afghanistan; and by what date in each case; [157138]

(2) from which budget funding will be provided for the 140 additional Mastiff vehicles announced by the Prime Minister in his statement on Iraq update of 8 October 2007, Official Report, columns 21-38. [158389]

Mr. Bob Ainsworth: As I said during the procurement debate in the House on 9 October, the Defence budget will be funding the procurement of additional Mastiff vehicles. Although delivery schedules have not yet been confirmed, we anticipate that they will be deployed on operations within the next 18 months. The allocation of these vehicles to Iraq, Afghanistan and the UK based training fleet will be a matter for commanders.

RNAS Yeovilton

Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on the future role of RNAS Yeovilton. [157593]

Mr. Bob Ainsworth: The future role of RNAS Yeovilton is currently being considered as part of Programme Belvedere, which was announced in 2006 and set up to conduct a study into the long term requirements for Joint Helicopter Command’s helicopter bases in the UK, originally part of the MOD review of Defence Airfields.

Programme Belvedere’s review is ongoing; consequently, no decisions have yet been taken on the future role of any of the bases included in the review. Once the programme has reached its conclusions, a ministerial announcement will be made. This is not expected before early 2009.


19 Oct 2007 : Column 1346W

Justice

Peterborough Prison: Drugs

Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many seizures of illicit drugs have taken place at HMP Peterborough in each month since May 2005; and if he will make a statement. [159049]

Mr. Hanson: The answer is provided in the following table.

Seizures of Illicit Drugs by Month: HMP Peterborough
Number
Male Female

2005

May

1

0

June

0

0

July

3

0

August

0

0

September

1

1

October

0

0

November

1

0

December

0

0

2006

January

1

1

February

1

0

March

5

2

April

1

0

May

1

1

June

2

0

July

0

1

August

5

0

September

3

2

October

4

0

November

6

2

December

5

0

2007

January

1

0

February

5

2

March

5

0

April

2

1

May

4

1

June

8

2

July

4

0

August

2

1

September

3

0

October

1

0

November

December


Repossession Orders: Mortgages

Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice whether an estimate has been made of the number of mortgage repossessions which would be classified as subprime mortgages. [158195]

Kitty Ussher: I have been asked to reply.


19 Oct 2007 : Column 1347W

The Government do not hold these figures. The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) publishes the total numbers of properties taken into possession, available at:

Transport

Bicycles: Accidents

Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many traffic accidents there were involving cyclists in Peterborough constituency in each of the last five years. [158960]

Jim Fitzpatrick: The number of reported personal injury road accidents involving at least one pedal cyclist in the Peterborough constituency in the last five years is shown in the following table.

Peterborough constituency
Number of accidents

2002

72

2003

98

2004

78

2005

64

2006

62


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