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29 Feb 2008 : Column 2012W—continued
Defence Equipment: Vehicles
Ann Winterton: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence when he expects an order to be placed with Force Protection Inc for the additional 140 Mastiff/Cougar vehicles. [187812]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: We have already ordered the additional Mastiff vehicles and negotiations are ongoing with the US Department of Defence and the manufacturer to agree the precise delivery schedule.
Defence: ICT
Mr. Arbuthnot: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether there have been changes in his Department's approach to information technology as a result of virtualisation; and if he will make a statement. [188635]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth [holding answer 25 February 2008]: The Department is aware of the potential advantages offered by virtualisation. The term virtualisation covers a broad range of technical opportunities that have been around since the 1970s and the MOD over this period has made use of these techniques.
In relation to the current growth in the virtualisation market, MOD and its commercial suppliers are considering the use of virtualisation techniques to pursue a number of benefits:
To reduce the number of servers required to host legacy and future applications;
To reduce the number of operating systems that are required to host legacy and future applications;
For Information Assurance and business continuity reasons to allow load balancing and fault tolerance capabilities;
As a way of running an application securely among other potentially less secure or resilient applications; and
To ensure users can access legacy applications in a seamless manner from modern infrastructures.
This list of examples is not exhaustive and the MOD just like any other Government or commercial enterprise will assess and exploit virtualisation as it continues to evolve.
Departmental Consultants
Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how much his Department spent on externally provided (a) consultancy and (b) other services in each of the last 10 years. [189602]
Derek Twigg: Summaries of MOD expenditure on external assistance, of which management consultancy is a part, are available in the Library of the House for the years 1995-96 to 2006-07. These summaries also include expenditure on certain other advisory services. Expenditure on the full range of other services which MOD procures is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. Figures for 2007-08 will be placed in the Library before the summer recess.
Departmental Pay
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how much was claimed in reimbursable expenses by senior civil service staff in his Department and its agencies in the last 12 month period for which figures are available. [187536]
Derek Twigg: Total reimbursable expenses paid to MOD senior civil service staff between 1 February 2007 and 31 January 2008 were £540,000.
Departmental Retirement
Stewart Hosie: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many staff in his Department retired on grounds of stress-related illness in each of the last three years. [187496]
Derek Twigg: Data for the number of civilian staff retiring from the Department on grounds of stress-related illness are not centrally held.
Departmental Translation Services
Mr. Gale: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what proportion of his Department’s translation and interpreting work is outsourced through framework agreements with commercial providers; and if he will make a statement. [189192]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth [holding answer 27 February 2008]: No translation or interpreting work is currently outsourced by the Ministry of Defence Language Service through framework agreements with commercial providers. Equivalent information for any work outsourced by other parts of the Department could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Departmental Vehicles
Mr. Jeremy Browne: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence pursuant to the answer of 7 February 2008, Official Report, column 1492W, on departmental vehicles, how many white fleet vehicles his Department and its agencies leased in each year since 2001. [187804]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: The number of white fleet vehicles leased by the Department in each year since 2001, (i.e. non-operational vehicles in England, Scotland and Wales), cannot be broken down into yearly totals, however the following ‘snapshots’ are available.
| Date, as at: | Number of vehicles leased |
Details of the number of white fleet vehicles leased by the MOD since 2001 in overseas theatres-by the MOD police, DSTL and Trading Funds-are not held centrally and therefore could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Future Rapid Effect System
Nick Harvey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether he has made any changes to the number of units required for the Future Rapid Effect System. [189273]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: The Future Rapid Effect System (FRES) is currently in its assessment phase; work on detailed requirements is continuing, and the fleet requirements for each FRES family will not be confirmed until the main investment decisions are taken.
Military Aircraft: Helicopters
Nick Harvey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many military helicopters were leased commercially by his Department in each year since 1997; what types of helicopters were leased; and what the cost of leasing was in each year. [183082]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: The numbers of helicopters leased by the Department in each year since 1997 and their associated costs are shown in the following table.
| Helicopter type | 1997-98 | 1998-99 | 1999-2000 | 2000-01 | 2001-02 | 2002-03 | 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 |
| (1) No data available. | |||||||||||
In addition, during December 2007, MI-8 helicopter flying hours were commercially leased to help deliver mail and parcels to troops in Afghanistan. This cost has been incorporated into the 2007-08 total.
Leasing arrangements do not all follow the same pattern with some forming part of Multi-Activity Contracts. This information is not held centrally and in compiling this answer, it has been identified that information was omitted from my reply to the hon. Member for Woodspring (Dr. Fox) on 6 December 2007, Official Report, column 1407W. The costs for financial years 2004-05, 2005-06, 2006-07 and 2007-08 are £48 million, £49 million, £50 million and £51 million respectively.
Navy
Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many ships there are in the Royal Navy. [189460]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: The Royal Navy currently has 75 surface ships of the following types: Landing Platform Dock, Landing Platform Helicopter, Aircraft Carriers, Destroyers, Frigates, Mine Countermeasures ships, River Class Offshore Patrol Vessels, Inshore Patrol Craft and Survey Ships. In addition, the Royal Navy has 13 submarines (ballistic and fleet).
Navy: Manpower
Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many admirals there are in the Royal Navy. [189461]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: There are two admirals, six vice admirals and 25 rear admirals currently serving in the Royal Navy. These numbers include admirals in Ministry Defence tri-service appointments.
Radar
Mr. Swire: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence (1) whether funds will be made available for a third radar station at Staxton Wold if the new T102 radar is found to mitigate the effects of wind turbines; [186996]
(2) what his policy is on the use of the new T102 air defence radar near onshore and offshore wind turbines;
and what assessment he has made of the effect of wind farms on the T102 radar system. [186997]
Derek Twigg: The T102 radar is a non-deployable air defence radar and will continue the role currently undertaken by the T93 radar contributing to the United Kingdom Air Surveillance and Control System. It is scheduled to replace the two T93 radars currently in operation at the Remote Radar Head (RRH) Trimingham and RRH Brizlee Wood with two new T102 radars during 2008. On current plans, we do not propose to procure a third T102 radar as we are scheduled to replace the T93 radar installed at Staxton Wold with a T101 transferred from another unit and this replacement radar will remain in service until 2017.
Although it is hoped that the T102 radar will be able to mitigate some of the adverse effects of wind turbines we have, as yet, made no assessment of the effect of wind farms on the system. Once the radars are delivered, an operational assessment will be undertaken. This will include an assessment of the effect on the radar returns of those existing wind turbine developments that fall within the radar coverage area.
If the mitigation provided by the T102 is not enough, we are ready to look with other stakeholders (e.g. DBERR and individual wind farm developers) at other possibilities to ensure we have the radar coverage needed in the air space above wind turbines.
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