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17 Dec 2007 : Column 1034W—continued
Statistics have been rounded to the nearest 10, numbers ending in five have been rounded to the nearest multiple of 20 to prevent systematic bias.
AWE Burghfield
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence when the current risk assessment at AWE Burghfield was adopted; and what plans there are to revise it. [172495]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: AWE plc implemented a revised risk assessment for operations at Burghfield in September 2007. This replaced the previous risk assessment, which had been adopted in 2002. Any further reviews will be undertaken in consultation with the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate.
Cumbria
Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether his Department plans to move any of its offices to Westmorland and Lonsdale constituency. [166571]
Derek Twigg: There are no such plans.
Defence Equipment and Support Organisation: Manpower
Annette Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many people were employed by the Ministry of Defence in acquisition roles with the Defence Equipment and Support Organisation in each of the last three years. [173410]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth [holding answer 11 December 2007]: Defence Equipment and Support (DE and S) was formed on 2 April 2007 as a result of the merger of the Defence Procurement Agency and the Defence Logistics Organisation. At the time of the merger, the total staff employed in the new organisation was 27,512 all of whom were directly or indirectly contributing to the defence acquisition process.
Defence Medical Services: Manpower
Nick Harvey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence (1) what the (a) operational requirement and (b) strength is of medical personnel treating head injuries in Operation Herrick and Operation Telic; [168883]
(2) how many neurosurgeons are currently deployed in British forward field hospitals in (a) Iraq and (b) Afghanistan; [168889]
(3) what the Defence Medical Services policy is on medical manning and capabilities required for the treatment of head injured patients. [168893]
Derek Twigg: All Defence Medical Services (DMS) personnel engaged in the treatment of head injured patients, both on operations and in NHS hospitals when not deployed, are trained to NHS clinical standards, with the addition of specific training in military surgical skills.
In my written ministerial statement of 27 March 2007, Official Report, columns 74-75WS, I announced that the MOD had endorsed a new DMS manpower requirement specifying the number of uniformed regular DMS personnel required to support operations, provide
peacetime health care and allow for continued training and the provision of headquarter staff during deployment.
The UK field hospital deployed on Operation Herrick has its full complement of UK specialist medical personnel required for treating serious head injuries, namely one neurosurgeon, one anaesthetist and two intensive treatment unit nurses.
Medical support for UK casualties suffering serious head injuries on Operation Telic is provided by a multinational team based in a US facility at Balad. Further specialised medical treatment is available in the region.
For both operational theatres, once the condition of the patient has been stabilised, they will be airlifted back to the UK.
Defence: Planning
Dr. Julian Lewis: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether he intends to review the Defence Planning Assumptions; and if he will make a statement. [137885]
Des Browne: The Defence Planning Assumptions are routinely reviewed as part of the Department's strategic planning cycle. This work is under way and will be completed in 2008.
Defence: Procurement
Mr. Carswell: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many (a) contract amendments and (b) post design services contracts were awarded by his Department post main gate for each equipment acquisition programme worth over £100 million audited by the National Audit Office and reported on in major projects reports published since 2001; and what their value was expressed as a percentage of the contract price agreed at main gate. [171829]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: The information requested is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Dr. Julian Lewis: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the average rate of inflation was for major defence procurement projects in each of the last five years. [172744]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth [holding answer 10 December 2007]: The Ministry of Defence does not produce measures of inflation by major procurement project.
Work is under way to develop an index which will help to provide an aggregate measure of defence equipment inflation.
Departmental Expenditure
Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what his Department's total expenditure was on fees for professional services, as listed in his Department's resource account code hierarchy, in near cash terms, in each financial year since 2000-01. [169350]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: The total resource costs of the expenditure item are set out in the following table:
| £ million | |
Near cash expenditure is not separately identified in the final resource accounts or the centrally held supporting records. Total resource costs have therefore been provided; however it is unlikely that there are any non cash costs attributed to the expenditure item which would result in the near cash expenditure being different from the resource expenditure.
Departmental Foreign Workers
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many (a) EU foreign nationals and (b) non EU foreign nationals are employed by his Department. [168110]
Derek Twigg: The following table shows the number of UK regular armed forces personnel in each service who are British, EU foreign nationals, non EU foreign nationals and the number of personnel whose nationality is not centrally recorded.
MOD civilian foreign nationals cannot be broken down into EU/non EU nationalities, as all foreign nationalities are recorded as ‘Other' in personnel administration systems.
| Nationality | Naval Service( 1) | Army( 2) | RAF( 1) |
| (1) As at 1 April 2007. (2) Due to ongoing data validation from a new personnel administration system, Army figures are not available at 1 April 2007. Figures are therefore shown as at 1 March 2007. Note: All figures have been rounded to the nearest 10. Numbers ending in five have been rounded to the nearest 20 to prevent systematic bias. | |||
Departmental Internet
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the cost was of maintaining his Department's daily blog for each of the last six months. [173186]
Derek Twigg: The internet hosting cost of the Defence News blog (www.blogs.mod.uk) has been £49.95 per month for each of the last six months. There have been no additional staff costs.
Departmental Marketing
Mr. Philip Hammond:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will place in the Library a copy of the
guidelines issued to staff maintaining his Department's and its agencies' corporate identity; and what the estimated annual cost is of (a) producing and (b) complying with such guidelines. [170236]
Derek Twigg: Disks containing the corporate identity guidelines for the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force will be placed in the Library of the House; those for the Department of State and the British Army are under development, and will be added in early 2008.
From 29 November 2006 to 28 November 2007 the Ministry of Defence Directorate of Public Relations spent £46,680 on producing corporate identity guidelines for the Army. The estimated annual cost of complying with these guidelines is nil.
Accurate information on how much Defence Agencies, Top Level Budget areas, Trading Funds, Joint Headquarters, single Service Commands and military units may have spent on producing and complying with corporate identity guidelines is not held centrally, and could be provided only at a disproportionate cost.
Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what his Department's total expenditure was on public relations as listed in his Department's resource account code hierarchy, in near cash terms, in each financial year since 2000-01. [173735]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: The total resource costs against this resource account code are set out in the following table:
| Financial year | Publicity relations (£ million) |
Near cash expenditure is not separately identified in the final resource accounts or the centrally held supporting records. Total resource costs have therefore been provided; however it is unlikely that there are any non cash costs attributed to the expenditure items which would result in the near cash expenditure being different from the resource expenditure.
Departmental Parliamentary Questions
Mr. Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many staff work in his Department's parliamentary branch; and what proportion of their time is spent on dealing with (a) parliamentary questions and (b) correspondence from hon. Members and Peers. [174961]
Derek Twigg: A total of 19 people work in the MOD parliamentary branch. 17 people's primary responsibility is to work on parliamentary questions or ministerial correspondence. Some posts include other duties such as assisting Ministers with their other responsibilities to Parliament.
The main role of the parliamentary branch is to process the Department's parliamentary business. Advice to Ministers on responding to parliamentary business is prepared by the relevant subject matter experts across the Ministry of Defence, both Service personnel and civilians, who number several hundreds.
Departmental Pay
Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the change in his Department's civilian salaries was measured against retail price index inflation in each financial year since 2001-02. [169473]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: The percentage change year on year and the change in the Retail Prices Index year on year were as follows:
| Percentage | ||
| Change in the average salary | Change in RPI | |
| Note: The data include permanent and casual personnel employed by the Department excluding personnel in trading funds. | ||
The percentage changes are reported to one decimal place.
The average salary per financial year from 2001-02 for civilian employees has been calculated using (i) the number of full time equivalent civilian employees and (ii) the expenditure recorded in the Department's accounts for civilian "salaries and wages". These figures include some allowances, such as overseas allowances and London weighting, which are included with pay.
Departmental Property
Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what his Department's accommodation budget allocation is for (a) 2007-08, (b) 2008-09, (c) 2009-10 and (d) 2010-11. [162574]
Derek Twigg: The MOD does not have a central budget for housing and other living accommodation. Expenditure is spread over the Department's top level budget (TLB) infrastructure, although a significant proportion is administered by the Defence Estates TLB. The MOD is forecasting to spend over £800 million on housing and other living accommodation for 2007-08. This sum includes investment, maintenance and other running costs, such as rental payments and contributions in lieu of council tax.
Budgets for future years have not yet been set following the conclusion of the comprehensive spending review.
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