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4 Mar 2008 : Column 2344W—continued
The balance of the investment is directed at SLA, as half of the worldwide stock is currently at the lowest acceptable condition. Under current plans, 30,000 new or improved SLA bed-spaces will be delivered by 2013. This Department plans to invest a total of £134 million on SFA in Great Britain over the next three years, of which £50 million is capital from the Chelsea receipt.
Commonwealth: Armed Forces
Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what percentage of soldiers in (a) non-commissioned and (b) commissioned ranks are from Commonwealth countries. [190046]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: As at 1 January 2008 there were 7.1 per cent. of non-commissioned soldiers and 1.3 per cent. of commissioned officers with a Commonwealth nationality recorded.
These percentages relate to trained regular personnel only and include the non-commissioned private soldiers.
Correspondence
Mr. Salmond: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence when he will reply to the letter dated 27 September 2007 from the right hon. Member for Banff and Buchan regarding a constituent, Mr. N. Wilson of Forglen. [187801]
Derek Twigg: We have no record of receiving a letter from the right hon. Member for Banff and Buchan regarding Mr. Wilson. However, my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Defence replied to a letter from Mr. Stewart Stevenson, the Member of Scottish Parliament for Banff and Buchan, on 25 February. A copy of this reply was sent to the right hon. Member as Mr. Wilson’s Westminster MP.
Departmental Assets
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence pursuant to the answer of 28 January 2008, Official Report, columns 33-4W, on departmental assets, which assets of his Department in (a) the UK and (b) abroad have been sold since 2000; what the (i) sale completion date and (ii) price realised was for each; what proportion of receipts from each sale was retained by his Department; and if he will make a statement. [185015]
Derek Twigg: The Ministry of Defence (MOD) retains the full benefit of disposal receipts, which form part of the Defence budget agreed with HM Treasury during the periodic spending reviews.
The MOD disposes of thousands of assets each year. Records of each sale are not held centrally and could be provided only with disproportionate cost. However, the total proceeds from the disposal of the Department’s fixed assets from 2000 are as follows:
| Proceeds (£ 000 ) | |
In addition, a table providing details of MOD land and property in the UK sold since 2000 will be placed in the Library of the House.
Departmental Carbon Emissions
Mr. Kemp: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what steps he has taken to reduce his Department’s carbon dioxide emissions in the next financial year. [191021]
Derek Twigg: I refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave him on 4 February 2008, Official Report, columns 796-97W.
Departmental Public Buildings
Andrew Stunell: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what percentage of new buildings approved by his Department were built to the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (a) very good and (b) excellent standard in each of the last five years; and what the construction cost of those buildings was. [172291]
Derek Twigg [h olding answer 10 December 2007]: In March 2006 this Department introduced the Defence Related Environmental Assessment Methodology (DREAM), which the Office of Government Commerce recognises as equivalent to the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM), for Ministry of Defence construction projects.
The percentage of new buildings built to these standards for the years in which information is available is shown in the following table:
| Assessment method | Total new builds assessed | Percentage new builds reaching excellent standard | Percentage new builds reaching very good standard | |
The construction costs of each building built to these standards are not separately identifiable and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Departmental Public Expenditure
Mr. Gerald Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence (1) if he will break down, by sub-head in (a) near cash and (b) non-cash terms his Department’s (i) gross resource outturn, (ii) operating appropriations in aid outturn, (iii) gross capital outturn and (iv) non-operating appropriations in aid outturn for financial years 2001-02 to 2006-07; [191679]
(2) what his Department’s (a) gross resource departmental expenditure limit (DEL), (b) operating appropriations in aid, (c) net capital DEL and (d) non-operating appropriations in aid outturn, broken down in (i) near cash and (ii) non cash terms, was for financial years 2000-01 to 2006-07. [191682]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: I will write to the hon. Member and place a copy of my letter in the Library of the House.
Departmental Sick Leave
Pete Wishart: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what percentage of working days lost by his Department’s staff was attributed to stress-related conditions in the most recent year for which figures are available. [187867]
Derek Twigg: The following table shows the percentage of sickness absence for Ministry of Defence civilian personnel(1) which was attributed to anxiety, depression and stress (Mental and Behavioural Disorders ICD10 category) in the calendar year 2007. The MOD does not have a specific sickness absence code for stress.
(1) This includes all permanent and casual non-industrial and industrial civilian personnel, but excludes Trading Fund, Locally Engaged Civilian and Royal Fleet Auxiliary personnel.
| Time period covered | Percentage( 1) of total sickness absence days lost due to anxiety, depression and stress |
| (1) The percentage of total staff has been rounded to the nearest decimal point. | |
Stress-related illness may have social or domestic causes and is not necessarily work-related. However, our policies are clear in terms of the recognition of such illnesses and the support we provide.
We advise our employees on how to avoid stress by explaining how stress can be recognised and managed. Line managers are actively encouraged to look for signs of stress in their staff and to take action to manage it. Specifically, we emphasise that individuals vary in their ability to cope with stress and explain that one person’s unbearable pressure may be another person’s positive challenge. On our web portal page we list the various physical and psychological symptoms to help line managers to identify early signs.
For those employees who do succumb to stress-related illness, the support of the Occupational Welfare Service is available.
Departmental Translation Services
Mr. Paul Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence (1) how much was spent on translation services for people in the UK who do not speak English by his Department, associated agencies and non-departmental public bodies in (a) 2003-04, (b) 2004-05, (c) 2005-06, (d) 2006-07 and (e) in 2007-08 to date; [187999]
(2) what documents his Department, associated agencies and non-departmental public bodies translate for people in the UK who do not speak English. [188000]
Derek Twigg: The Ministry of Defence holds records of translation work that was centrally contracted out for UK based customers during 2003-04 and 2004-5. However, the records do not specify whether the ultimate customers for the translations were non-English speakers. The following figures represent the costs during 2003-04 and 2004-05 of translation work centrally contracted out by the Ministry of Defence Language Service:
2003-04: £10,812
2004-05: £3,764
These costs are for translations for solely UK-based customers into Welsh, Nepali, Bengali, Urdu, Hindi, Punjabi and Gujarati. The documents translated consisted of a wide variety of general correspondence, official publications, courts-martial transcriptions, website content and promissory notes.
Since 2005, responsibility for the commissioning of external language services has been devolved across the Department. Equivalent information for the latter years therefore is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Departmental Written Questions
Richard Younger-Ross: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many and what proportion of Parliamentary questions for answer on a named day to his Department received a (a) holding and (b) substantive answer on the named day in each year since 2001. [190299]
Derek Twigg: The number of named day questions received by the Ministry of Defence is shown as follows.
| Number | |
Information on the number and percentage answered on the named day is only available for the 2006-07 parliamentary Session. Of the 799 questions received, 180 (25 per cent.) received a substantive answer on the named day. All questions not answered substantively on the named day receive a holding answer.
EU Rapid Reaction Force
Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many (a) Army, (b) Royal Navy and (c) Royal Air Force personnel form the British commitment to the Helsinki Headline Goal; and what percentage of the Army's commitment is formed from the infantry. [190714]
Des Browne: The Helsinki Headline Goal has been superseded by the Headline Goal 2010.
The UK declaration to both the Helsinki Headline Goal and the Headline Goal 2010 were based on units of capability and not numbers of armed forces personnel. These offers do not commit the UK to any action and requests for forces to support EU operations are considered on a voluntary case-by-case basis. Copies of the UK response to the Headline Goal 2010 are available in the Library of the House.
Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether the EU Battlegroup concept under the Headline Goal 2010 relieves the UK of its commitment to the European Rapid Reaction Force under the Helsinki Headline Goal; and if he will make a statement. [190721]
Des Browne: There is no European Rapid Reaction Force. However, the EU has an objective to be able rapidly to generate forces to support crisis management operations. The EU Battlegroup initiative has been developed to help meet this requirement for rapid response.
The UK’s offer of forces that could be potentially made available to support EU operations whether through our response to the headline goal 2010 or through the provision of a Battlegroup does not commit the UK to any action. Requests for forces to support EU operations are considered on a voluntary case-by-case basis.
Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft
Nick Harvey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence (1) how much it has cost to establish the Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft private finance initiative in each year since 1999; [189271]
(2) what estimates have been made of the total costs of the Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft; how much it has cost to check the value of a private finance initiative against a public sector comparator; and what the cost has been of the auction and negotiations with the preferred bidder. [189272]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: The Whole Life Cost of the Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft PFI programme is currently estimated to be around £13 billion. To date, the Department has incurred expenditure of approximately £47.5 million in conducting the Assessment Phase, including the internal running costs of the DE and S Integrated Project Team. The following table shows this expenditure by financial year.
| Assessment Phase (£ million) | |
| (1) Reflects 2007-08 expenditure to January 2008 | |
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