| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
3 Dec 2007 : Column 823W—continued
MOD is required to accommodate entitled personnel within 10 miles of their duty station (or 20 miles with permission of their service commander). Where no
suitable service family accommodation can be found, SSFA is offered within the appropriate distance from a duty station.
Nick Harvey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the 50 most expensive substitute service family accommodation and substitute single living accommodation properties rented out in the last 12 months were. [168873]
Derek Twigg: The information requested will take time to collate. I will write to the hon. Member and place a copy of my letter in the Library of the House.
Armed Forces: Pay
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what pay increases the armed forces have received in the last two years. [170275]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: Increases in the pay of the armed forces, as recommended by the Armed Forces' Pay Review Body for 2006-07 and 2007-08, are shown in the following table. The table shows both the overall percentage increase in pay for service personnel and variations to this by individual rank groupings.
Armed Forces: Widowed People
Mr. Arbuthnot: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many armed forces widows voluntarily surrendered their pensions on remarriage or cohabitation in each of the last five years; and what the associated saving to the defence budget was in each year. [169976]
Derek Twigg: An exercise is currently under way to provide detailed figures. I will write to the hon. Member as soon as this exercise is completed.
Armoured Fighting Vehicles: Contracts
Robert Key: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will name the prime contractors bidding for the Future Rapid Effect System contract; and if he will make a statement. [169310]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth
[holding answer 29 November 2007]: The acquisition strategy for the future rapid effect system (FRES) is to establish an alliance, led by the Department and supported by a system of systems integrator (SOSI). The approved acquisition strategy involves a strong competitive element with an initial wave of three separate competitions to select a system of systems integrator (SOSI), a utility vehicle (UV) design and a UV integrator. An alliance construct,
rather than a prime contractor is considered to be the most appropriate commercial arrangement to deliver
A team of Thales and Boeing has been named as the preferred bidder in the SOSI competition and contract negotiations are under way.
Three vehicle designs were selected to take part in the UV Design competition. The vehicle designs selected were BOXER (ARTEC, a German and Dutch joint venture company), PIRANHA (General Dynamics UK) and VBCI (Nexter).
The UV Integrator competition is at the pre-qualification stage. Pre-qualification questionnaires were issued in October 2007 and responses are due to be returned by the end of November. One or more UV Integrators will be selected, by the end of March 2008, to go forward to the next stage. As we are in the midst of the UV Integrator competition, I am withholding the names of companies participating as their release would, or would be likely to prejudice commercial interests.
Army: Manpower
Mr. Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will estimate the cost of expanding the size of the Army by three battalions. [165588]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: It is not possible to provide any worthwhile estimate of the cost of an additional three battalions; the figures required to calculate this cost are not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. Expenditure is spread over a variety of budgets and will vary according to the composition of the battalion, the role to which it will attributed, the tasks in which it will be engaged and where it will be deployed.
Army: Recruitment
Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list, by regiment, the extent of recruitment against targets for each year since 2000. [166967]
Derek Twigg: Officers are not recruited against regimental targets but against a whole Army requirement. It is only after completing officer training and commissioning that an officer joins a particular regiment. The information for targets and achievements against total officer recruiting for direct entry and professionally qualified officers is only recorded since 2002, and is shown in the following table.
| Direct entry | Professionally qualified officer | |
Similarly, soldiers are not recruited against regimental targets but against Arms and corps requirements. Information held centrally on targets and achievements for Soldier recruitment to arms and corps is shown as follows. Further detail could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |