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28 Oct 2008 : Column 804W—continued
Women and Equality
Departmental ICT
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Minister for Women and Equality what IT projects the Government Equalities Office is undertaking; and what the most recent estimate of (a) the cost and (b) the completion date of each is. [229171]
Maria Eagle: The Government Equalities Office is currently rebuilding its website at an estimated cost of £40,000. The project will be completed by the end of 2008. There are no other IT projects under way.
Departmental Official Visits
David Simpson: To ask the Minister for Women and Equality how much was spent on overnight accommodation by civil servants within the Government Equalities Office since its creation. [228785]
Maria Eagle: Over the past 12 months the Government Equalities Office has spent £2,600 on overnight accommodation.
Departmental Public Participation
Mrs. May: To ask the Minister for Women and Equality how many citizens’ juries the Government Equalities Office has held since 1 July 2007; what the cost was of each; what issues were discussed at each event; and how many (a) Ministers and (b) members of the public attended each event. [227485]
Maria Eagle: The Government Equalities Office has not held any citizens’ juries since 1 July 2007.
Departmental Security
Chris Huhne: To ask the Minister for Women and Equality how many security passes have been reported (a) lost and (b) stolen by staff in the Government Equalities Office since its creation. [228944]
Maria Eagle: There have been two instances of building passes being lost since the Government Equalities Office (GEO) was created. These are included in the figures provided by my hon. Friend the Member for Tooting (Mr. Khan) for the Department for Communities and Local Government London headquarters building, where most of GEO’s staff are based.
Departmental Trade Unions
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Minister for Women and Equality how many civil servants in the Government Equalities Office were seconded to work for (a) trades unions and (b) the Trades Union Congress in each year since its inception. [229109]
Maria Eagle: No civil servants in the Government Equalities Office have been seconded to work for (a) trade unions and (b) the Trades Union Congress since its inception.
Domestic Violence: Sentencing
Mr. Roger Williams: To ask the Minister for Women and Equality how many successful prosecutions for domestic violence against women have resulted in a prison sentence for the perpetrator in the last five years. [227212]
Maria Eagle: It is not possible to identify separately domestic violence offences on the court proceedings database as the circumstances of offences are not collected centrally.
National Equalities Panel
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Minister for Women and Equality what estimate she has made of the cost of (a) establishing the National Equalities Panel, (b) running the panel in its first year and (c) the salary which will be paid to panel members. [229115]
Maria Eagle: The total cost of the Panel is likely to be £400,000 over two financial years. It will be met by a Government research grant to the London School of Economics. Payment of the grant will be dependent on completion of agreed stages in the project. The Chair and panel members, who are leading experts in their fields will be paid £1,000 per day, for a maximum of 80 days for the Chair and eight days for each member.
Defence
Armed Forces: Intimidation
Mrs. Humble: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many calls have been logged on the armed forces anti-bullying confidential support line in the last 12 months; what procedures are in place to ensure that steps are taken to address (a) allegations of bullying and (b) identify patterns of abuse and bullying blackspots; and by what means the Service Complaints Commissioner is kept informed. [230898]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: The armed forces do not run an ‘armed forces anti-bullying confidential support line'. However, the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association runs a ‘confidential support line' for a range of issues such as welfare, health and terms of service including concerns about bullying and harassment. The support line is available to serving personnel (of all services) together with their families and former members of the armed forces.
Calls to the support line are logged under a series of generic headings including 'equality and diversity' which includes those concerning bullying, harassment and discrimination. During the period January to December 2007, the most recent period for which figures are available, 170 calls from serving service personnel relating to equality and diversity issues were logged, together with a further 19 from family members and veterans.
The Department's unified diversity strategy makes clear that bullying and harassment are not tolerated under any circumstances and that the penalties for offenders are potentially severe.
Joint Service Publication 763 'The MOD Harassment Complaints Procedure' sets out the procedures for all MOD Service and civilian personnel making, responding to, advising on, investigating, and deciding on, complaints of harassment.
All units are required to have at least one qualified Equality and Diversity Advisor (EDA); larger units will have several. In addition to providing help and advice to individuals, EDAs are required to keep unit equality and diversity logs. The logs are regularly reviewed by unit commanders and statistical information is drawn upon by a tri-Service Evaluation Group (at commodore, colonel and group captain level) chaired by the Director Service Personnel Service Conditions along with other reports and statistics to identify trends and areas of concern.
While conducting unit visits, the independent Service Complaints Commissioner is given access to unit logs and it has recently been agreed that she will also be provided with statistics from these logs bi-annually.
Armed Forces: Leave
Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many days lost were recorded for service personnel in respect of (a) rest and recuperation, (b) post-operational tour and (c) annual leave in each year since 2003. [230171]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: Rest and Recuperation (R&R) is not classified as an entitlement and is given at the discretion of the chain of command. Leave, including post operational leave, should be recorded on the Joint Personnel Administration (JPA) system. The Defence Analytical Services Agency (DASA) undertake an annual leave survey designed to estimate the leave taken, carried forward and lost but it does not distinguish those personnel who were not able to take forward leave from those who chose to carry it forward to the next year. The survey findings from 1997-08 to 2006-07 are available in the Library of the House but, due to JPA data migration issues, DASA have not been able to conduct the 2007-08 survey.
Armed Forces: Termination of Employment
Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many service personnel leaving the armed forces in each year since 2001 had completed (a) under five years service, (b) between five and 22 years service and (c) over 22 years service. [230160]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: The number of service personnel leaving the trained UK regular forces(1) in each financial year since 2001-02 is provided in the table:
(1) Outflow from the UK Regular Forces includes recalled reservists on release and outflow to the Home Service Battalions of the Royal Irish Regiment. The Royal Irish Regiment disbanded on 31 March 2008.
| Trained outflow by length of service | ||||
| All services | Fewer than five years | Five to 22 years | Over 22 years | |
| (1) Army outflow data split by length of service is unavailable for 1 March 2007 to 31 March 2007. Therefore, Army outflow figures broken down by length of service for FY 2006-07 comprises data from 1 March 2006 to 28 February 2007. The total trained outflow for UK Regular Forces for financial year 2006-07 was 18,870. The sum of the fewer than five years length of service, five to 22 years length of service and over 22 years service quoted in this table is 18,580. (2) Denotes provisional. Due to ongoing validation of data from the Joint Personnel Administration System, all service flow statistics for financial year 2006-07 and 2007-08 are provisional and subject to review. Source: DASA Quad Service | ||||
Armed Forces: Training
Mrs. Humble: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many instructors have enrolled in and completed training at the Staff Leadership School at Pirbright; how many and what proportion of instructors have completed the Train the Trainer courses; and what target date he has set for the completion of mandatory training for all instructors on the training estate. [230789]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: A total of 2,244 instructors have enrolled and completed courses at the Army Staff Leadership School (ASLS) at Pirbright since its opening in April 2007. Of those, 1,791 completed the full and accredited Defence Train the Trainer (DTTT) course and the remainder completed an appropriately tailored version for personnel working in proximity of, but not directly instructing, trainees. At 30 September 2008 the proportion of instructors trained by ASLS was 81 per cent. across the training establishments commanded by Director General Army Recruiting and Training.
The revised policy for staff delivering formal training, issued on 1 August 2008, requires all instructors to gain this qualification. This should, ideally, be achieved prior to taking up their instructional post or, where this is not possible, within three months of taking up instructional duties during which time they are to be very closely supervised. Work is in hand to ensure that all instructors in initial formal training have received the DTTT course, the current target being to ensure that, by December 2008, 95 per cent. of instructors have been trained.
Mrs. Humble: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what steps have been taken by the Army to establish and maintain central records of written policy changes within the training estate. [230821]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: The Army's policy for recruit training is maintained by Headquarters (HQ) Army Recruiting and Training Division (ARTD) and is derived from Defence and other Army policies. It is promulgated via the ARTD handbook, a web based document which is available to all Army training units via the Army Intranet. Each element of policy is owned by an officer within the HQ who is responsible for ensuring the published policy is kept up to date.
Mrs. Humble: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many recruits enrolled in the Army Junior Entry Phase 1 training at (a) Army Foundation College Harrogate, (b) Army Training Regiment Winchester and (c) other establishments in 2007; and what progress has been made extending the duration of Phase 1 training at Army Training Regiment Bassingbourn. [230900]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: In financial year 2007-08, 1,309 Junior Entry recruits commenced training at the Army Foundation College Harrogate and 863 at Army Training Regiment Bassingbourn.
Junior Entry training switched from Bassingbourn to Army Training Regiment Winchester in August/September 2008. This is in line with the recommendation in Sir Nicholas Blake QC’s “Deepcut Review” that those under 17 should be trained in establishments catering exclusively for this age group. Prior to this, no junior entry training was conducted at Winchester.
There are currently no plans to extend the Junior Entry Phase 1 course at Winchester beyond its present 23 weeks, which consists of 20 weeks tuition and three weeks leave.
Armed Forces: Young People
Mrs. Humble: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many (a) 16-year-olds and (b) 17-year-olds were recruited into each of the armed services in (i) 2002 and (ii) 2007; and how many recruits aged under 18 years of age were allocated to units for military duties. [230899]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: The following table shows the number of 16 and 17-year-olds that were recruited into each service of the UK regular armed forces(1) in the financial years 2002-03 and 2007-08.
| All services | Naval service | Army | RAF | |||||
| 16 | 17 | 16 | 17 | 16 | 17 | 16 | 17 | |
| (1) Provisional. Source: DASA Quad-Service. | ||||||||
Armed forces personnel are not allocated to units for military duties until they have completed training. The number of trained UK regular armed forces(1) personnel under the age of 18 as at 1 April 2002, 2003, 2007 and 2008 is shown in the following table.
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