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21 Feb 2008 : Column 888W—continued
| Reported personal injury road accidents, by day of week: Suffolk 1997-2006 | |||||||
| Number of accidents | |||||||
| Day of week | |||||||
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday | |
Silverlink: Compensation
Mr. Lancaster: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what compensation was made available to season ticket holders as a result of the October/November 2007 strike action that affected Silverlink services. [188012]
Mr. Tom Harris: As the strike days were under the old Silverlink franchise, the entitlement to compensation for season ticket holders was determined by the Silverlink Passenger’s Charter. This did not contain any obligation on Silverlink to provide compensation under these circumstances. Any compensation provided by Silverlink would have been at its own discretion and not a matter for the Department.
Speed Limits: Cameras
Mr. Breed: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport for what purposes the eight SPECS cameras in the Saltash Tunnel are used. [187323]
Mr. Tom Harris: SPECS cameras are installed throughout the length of the Saltash tunnel to support any police enforcement of the 30 mph speed limit that is in place for safety reasons.
Vehicle Inspectorate: Expenditure
Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how much the Vehicle Inspectorate spent on border security and enforcement in each of the last three financial years. [186416]
Jim Fitzpatrick: The amount spent by The Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA) on border security and enforcement in each of the last three financial years is nil, as VOSA are not a statutory border agency and VOSA’s enforcement work is not carried out at the border.
Defence
Annual Army Abstract 2007
Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will place in the Library a copy of his Department’s Annual Army Abstract 2007. [185719]
Derek Twigg: The Defence Analytical Services Agency has not produced an Annual Army Abstract since April 2005, due to the majority of the statistics already produced in other more timely publications such as the monthly manning report and the tri-service publications.
Armed Forces Compensation Scheme: World War II
Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the (a) average and (b) longest delay in payment was to those entitled to payment under the compensation scheme for former civilian prisoners of the Japanese in the Second World War between authorisation of payment by the Veterans Agency and payment over the last 12 months; and if he will make a statement. [186104]
Derek Twigg: The information is not held in the format requested and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. However, we have manually tracked five payments made since October 2007; the manual processing time was five days, although one payment took 12 days to process.
The Service Personnel and Veterans Agency (SPVA) are not aware of any claimant reporting a payment failing to arrive or reporting undue delays in payment.
Armed Forces: Apprentices
Mark Pritchard: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether his Department plans to offer (a) Royal Navy, (b) Army and (c) Royal Air Force recruits apprenticeships appropriate to their trade or profession; and whether any changes are planned to apprenticeships that are in place in each service. [187273]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: The armed forces are one of the UK's largest employers of apprentices. Training is delivered ‘in-house’, with specific apprenticeship requirements being interwoven with the training needs of the operational environment. In the vast majority of cases, apprenticeship programmes directly relate to specific service professions and have significant portability when personnel return to civilian life. In the last financial year the armed forces recorded over 7,300 funded apprentice completions. In order to meet their business needs, the armed forces continue to expand the variety of apprenticeship schemes available to their personnel. No changes are planned to apprenticeship schemes that are currently in place.
Armed Forces: Archives
Andrew Mackinlay: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence where the attestation papers of Irish regiments disbanded in 1922 are deposited; and if he will make a statement. [187261]
Derek Twigg [holding answer 20 February 2008]: Many records did not survive due to the destruction of the Army Records Centre during the Blitz. If they have survived, attestation papers for non-commissioned ranks whose service ended before circa 1 Jan 1921 will be found at The National Archives, in classes WO 363 and WO 364 or in earlier-dated classes if discharged prior to the outbreak of the first world war. For those whose service ended in 1921 or later and whose attestation papers have survived, the papers will be among the British Army service records now held by TNT Archive Services on behalf of MOD.
Armed Forces: Housing
Lady Hermon: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how much has been spent by his Department in each of the last six years on providing private rented accommodation for service personnel and their families. [170453]
Derek Twigg: In 1996, the Ministry of Defence (MOD) sold its service families accommodation (SFA) in England and Wales to Annington Homes Ltd. (AHL). Under the sale agreement the SFA is leased back to the MOD until the Department no longer has a use for it.
MOD is required to accommodate entitled personnel within 10 miles of their duty station (or 20 miles with the permission of their service commander). Where no suitable SFA can be found, substitute SFA (SSFA) is offered within the appropriate distance from a duty station.
The expenditure in the last six years is shown in the following table. Information in respect of 2001-02 SSFA is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
| £ million | |||||
| AHL rent | UK SSFA | Cyprus SSFA | Gibraltar SSFA | Germany SSFA | |
Patrick Mercer: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what estimate he has made of the number of ex-spouses who have overstayed the 90 days notice to vacate period as a result of the breakdown of an armed forces marriage; how many of these who overstayed had children; and how many have subsequently been evicted. [172558]
Derek Twigg: The information requested is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Armed Forces: Training
Patrick Mercer: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what percentage of infantry recruits did not complete their training at Infantry Training Centre, Catterick in each of the last five years. [185004]
Derek Twigg [holding answer 5 February 2008]: The percentage of Infantry recruits who did not complete their infantry training at the Infantry Training Centre (ITC), Catterick is as follows:
Army Training and Recruiting Agency
Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will place in the Library a copy of each of his Department’s latest (a) ATRA trainee strength by UIN and (b) ATRA trained soldier gains by Arms/Corps. [185720]
Derek Twigg: I am withholding the ATRA trainee strength by UIN analysis because it would disclose personal information, either directly or by combination with other published data.
The latest version of the ATRA trained soldier gains by Arms/Corps was as at 1 March 2007. Copies of this publication will be placed in the Library in due course.
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