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6 Oct 2008 : Column 244W—continued
Armed Forces: Manpower
Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the annual cost of employing an (a) Unit Welfare Officer and (b) padre is. [223501]
Derek Twigg [holding answer 15 September 2008]: Information on the annual cost of employing every group or category of Service personnel, e.g. Unit Welfare Officers (UWOs) and chaplains is not centrally held by my Department. The bulk of these costs, however, comprise pay, employers' national insurance contributions and superannuation charges adjusted for past experiences (SCAPE), for which figures are available and are shown in the following table for UWOs and chaplains.
| £ | ||||
| Average annual pay | Employers' national insurance contribution | SCAPE | Total | |
There is no single definition of a UWO which applies across the services. At most major Army units, the UWO will be at the rank of Late Entry Captain. The Royal Navy and Royal Air Force provide welfare assistance through the Chain of Command and other mechanisms. An Army Late Entry Captain therefore provides an example of the pay cost of a UWO.
The figure for Service chaplains quoted above reflects an average pay cost based on the tri-Service population who are paid from a tri-Service incremental pay spine.
Armed Forces: Procurement
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what provision his Department has made for research and development expenditure on (a) manned contact aircraft, (b) Future Surface Combatant, (c) next generation helicopters, (d) Future Infantry Soldier Technology and (e) military satellites in 2008-09. [220467]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: The Minister of Defence currently plans for expenditure during the financial year 2008-09 on research likely to be exploited in and development directly on (a) manned fixed-wing aircraft of some £710 million; (b) Future Surface Combatant of some £25 million; (c) next generation helicopters of some £160 million; (d) Future Infantry Soldier Technology of over £13 million; and (e) military satellites of over £2 million.
Armed Forces: Recruitment
Mr. Jamie Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence (1) how many members of (a) the Army, (b) the Royal Navy and (c) the Royal Air Force were recruited from (i) Cumbria and (ii) Copeland in the last five years; [223948]
(2) how many members of HM armed forces recruited from (a) Cumbria and (b) Copeland are expected to complete their military service in financial year 2008-09; and how many of them will be eligible to receive recently-announced further education support; [223949]
(3) how many members of HM armed forces who were recruited from (a) Cumbria and (b) Copeland who will complete military service in 2008-09 and will be under 60 years of age will qualify for concessionary bus travel. [223950]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave him on 10 September 2008, Official Report, column 1807W.
Mr. Jamie Reed:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence (1) what estimate his Department has made of the number of members of HM armed forces from (a)
Cumbria and (b) Copeland completing their military service in financial year 2008-09 who will require specially-adapted social housing; [223954]
(2) what estimate his Department has made of the number of (a) primary school places and (b) secondary school places in (i) Cumbria and (ii) Copeland which will be required for children of members of HM armed forces completing their military service in 2008-09. [223955]
Mr. Kevan Jones: Information on how many personnel leaving the armed forces settle in each county is not held by the Department.
Armed Forces: Scotland
Mr. Carmichael: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many service personnel (a) were stationed in Scotland, (b) were serving with a Scottish regiment, (c) were serving with a regiment whose home base was located in Scotland, (d) were recruited in Scotland, (e) trained in Scotland, (f) retired in Scotland and (g) identified their nationality as Scottish in each of the services in each year since 1997; and if he will make a statement. [215678]
Mr. Kevan Jones: Figures for the stationed location of UK regular forces since 1997 are available in United Kingdom Defence Statistics (UKDS) table 2.3 and can be found at the following link:
http://www.dasa.mod.uk/applications/newWeb/www/apps/publications/pubViewFile.php?content=10.203&;date=2007-09-26&type=html
Copies of UKDS are available in the Library of the House and also at
The following table shows the number of UK regular forces who identified their nationality as Scottish in each year since 1997.
| April each year | All services | Naval service | Army | RAF |
| n/a = not available. Naval Service and RAF data are not held centrally prior to April 2002. Following the staged introduction of JPA from April 2006 it is not possible to identify Scottish personnel. Notes: 1. UK regular forces includes nursing services and excludes full time reserve service personnel, Gurkhas and mobilised reservists. It includes trained and untrained personnel. 2. Nationality data comprise of personnel for whom we hold a record of nationality, i.e. excluding those of unspecified nationality. 3. When rounding to the nearest 10, numbers ending in 5 have been rounded to the nearest multiple of 20 to prevent systematic bias. | ||||
Further information is either not available or not held centrally and could be provided at only disproportionate cost.
Armed Forces: Training
Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many training airborne jumps were conducted by service personnel in the armed forces in each month since November 2007, broken down by type of aircraft. [222017]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: The following table shows parachute descents by entitled service personnel conducted from November 2007 to July 2008 broken down by aircraft type. This includes displays conducted by the RAF Falcons Display team, whose descents can be broken out only at disproportionate cost.
| Total descents | C130( 1) | Other aircraft | Chinook | Other helicopters | |
| (1) The breakdown of figures for C130 variants can be obtained only at disproportionate cost. | |||||
Armoured Fighting Vehicles
Mr. Holloway: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence with reference to the answer of 19 July 2006, Official Report, column 505W, on armoured vehicles, what progress has been made in securing delivery of the Vector armoured vehicles. [221900]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: All Vector Protected Patrol Vehicles, including the ambulance variants, were delivered by January 2008.
Atomic Weapons Establishment
Mr. Dai Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how much has been spent on taking forward the disarmament laboratory initiative at AWE Aldermaston; what the total budget allocated to the project is; how many staff are working on the project; and what security clearance is required for project participants. [223893]
Mr. Hutton: The “disarmament laboratory” initiative is not a discrete AWE project but rather a concept under which the UK is trying to move the disarmament agenda forward as a whole. AWE's contribution to the “disarmament laboratory” is being conducted under the Arms Control Verification Research programme.
This research programme started in April 2000 and the total spend is forecast to exceed £3 million by the end of FY08-09.
Within AWE a dedicated team of five staff form the core of the Arms Control Verification Research programme. This team draws on experts and resources from other
AWE programme areas as well as wider government. In order to fully understand the implications of potential verification technologies some of the research is UK only and remains classified; staff working on this research are appropriately security cleared. The joint research with Norway and the non-governmental organisation VERTIC carries no proliferation risk and is unclassified; special security clearances are not required.
BAE Mantis
Mark Pritchard: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what his most recent estimate is of the in-service date for the Mantis unmanned aerial vehicle. [223989]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: Departmental arrangements with BAE Systems concerning the Mantis UAV—unmanned aerial vehicle—project are currently limited to involvement in the early stages of a technology demonstrator programme. No commitments have been made by the Department beyond the current stage of the programme.
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