House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 26 Feb 2009 (pt 0038)

26 Feb 2009 : Column 1060W—continued

Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the forecast cost of the Modernised Target Acquisition Designation Sight/Pilots Night Vision Sensor programme was from the (a) direct resource departmental expenditure limit (DEL), (b) indirect resource DEL and (c) capital DEL at 31 March (i) 2005, (ii) 2006, (iii) 2007 and (iv) 2008. [257782]

Mr. Quentin Davies: The information requested is shown in the following table. The figures include the cost of the assessment, demonstration and manufacture phases.

£ million
	31 March 2005	31 March 2006	31 March 2007	31 March 2008
Direct Resource DEL	28	29	28	⁽¹⁾33
Indirect Resource DEL	8	9	8	6
Capital DEL	218	199	199	197
Total	254	237	235	236
^{(1 )}The apparent increase in RDEL as at 31 March 2008 is due to a change in reporting in relation to contracted-out services VAT. This is a requirement of MPR but is not a cost to the Department as VAT is recovered under the COSVAT scheme. In real terms the costs have not risen.

Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the forecast cost of the Merlin Sustainment Capability programme was from the (a) direct resource departmental expenditure limit (DEL), (b) indirect resource DEL and (c) capital DEL at 31 March (i) 2007 and (ii) 2008. [257783]

Mr. Quentin Davies: The information requested is shown in the following table. The figures include the assessment, demonstration and manufacture costs.

£ million
	31 March 2007	31 March 2008
Direct Resource RDEL	27	27
Indirect Resource DEL	27	27
Capital DEL	805	805
Total	859	859

Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the forecast cost of the Nimrod Maritime Reconnaissance and Attack Mk 4 Programme was from the (a) direct resource departmental expenditure limit (DEL), (b) indirect resource DEL and (c) capital DEL at 31 March (i) 2001, (ii) 2002, (iii) 2003, (iv) 2004, (v) 2005, (vi) 2006, (vii) 2007 and (viii) 2008. [257785]

Mr. Quentin Davies: The information requested is shown in the following table. The figures include the cost of the assessment, demonstration and manufacture phases.

£ million
	31 March 2001	31 March 2002	31 March 2003	31 March 2004	31 March 2005	31 March 2006	31 March 2007	31 March 2008
Direct Resource DEL	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5
Indirect Resource DEL	373	371	596	406	549	452	449	461
Capital DEL	2,462	2,467	2,780	3,187	3,258	3,064	3,052	3,141
Total	2,840	2,843	3,381	3,598	3,812	3,521	⁽¹⁾3,505	3,607
^{(1 )}Due to rounding, the total figure does not equal the sum of the parts Note: Due to rounding, the figure for 2005 and 2007 do not exactly equal the overall total programme cost published in the Major Project report of the year in question.

Departmental Internet

Mr. Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will publish a copy of his Department’s website accessibility plan. [257238]

Mr. Kevan Jones: An accessibility policy is available for the MOD corporate website

www.mod.uk.

The policy was produced in line with guidance from the Central Office of Information (COI). The policy contains an action plan for compliance with World Wide Web Consortium’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 1.0

http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/

Conformance Level Double A

http://www.w3.Org/TR/WCAG10/#Conformance

26 Feb 2009 : Column 1061W

or WCAG 2.0

http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/

equivalent where applicable, by December 2009. A web page summary of the www.mod.uk accessibility policy will be published to the site by 2 March 2009, as well as the full policy.

Departmental Manpower

Mr. Maude: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence pursuant to the answer of 26 January 2009, Official Report, columns 32-3W, on departmental manpower, in which parts of the country civilian staff in the redeployment pool band D and equivalent and above are required to work. [258590]

Mr. Kevan Jones: Full-time staff at Band D and equivalent and above are classed as having a full mobility obligation, which renders them liable to transfer to any location in the UK or abroad. Staff below Band D and all part-time staff, regardless of grade, have a minimum mobility obligation. This means that they are liable to temporary detached duty and can be transferred locally to other suitable employment within reasonable daily travelling distance.

Empty Property

Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the estimated cost in empty property business rates for the vacant properties recorded on the e-PIMS database owned by (a) his Department and (b) the Met Office is in 2008-09. [258515]

Mr. Kevan Jones: MOD has only one part vacant property recorded on e-PIMS. The estimated cost of the vacant element is £2,425 in 2008-09. The MOD actually pays some £60,000 per annum in rates on the building. There are no costs associated with properties owned by the Meteorological Office.

Ex-servicemen: Offenders

Dr. Murrison: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what research he has (a) commissioned and (b) plans to undertake on (i) the factors associated with offending by former members of the armed forces
26 Feb 2009 : Column 1062W
and (ii) the incidence of post-traumatic stress disorder amongst such offenders. [258186]

Mr. Kevan Jones: In concert with the Ministry of Justice the Ministry of Defence plans to conduct research this year on the proportion of veterans in the prison population using data provided by the Ministry of Justice. We also aim to conduct research on offending among those who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan linked to our existing health research on this cohort which includes mental health aspects such as post-traumatic stress disorder.

Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft

Mr. Wallace: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the schedule of payments is for the Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft under the private finance initiative contract; and when each payment is due to be made. [258997]

Mr. Quentin Davies: The payment for the Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft is dependent upon the level of usage by the MOD. Invoices will be presented to the MOD each month.

Mr. Wallace: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether the private finance initiative contract signed with the Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft consortium requires the armed forces to use the consortium to undertake all air-to-air refuelling tasks for the period of the contract. [258998]

Mr. Quentin Davies: The FSTA contract does not prevent the RAF from continuing to receive from, or provide fuel to, other nations’ air forces.

Iraq: Peacekeeping Operations

Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many equipment failure reports have been received in respect of armoured vehicles during (a) operations in (i) Iraq and (ii) Afghanistan and (b) training in each of the last 12 months, broken down by vehicle type. [257679]

Mr. Quentin Davies: The information is shown in the following table.

26 Feb 2009 : Column 1063W

26 Feb 2009 : Column 1064W

Equipment failure reports
	2008											2009
Vehicle	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Jan
Iraq
Bulldog	29	15	14	10	13	12	1	30	0	13	6	11
Challenger 2	37	10	8	10	0	7	13	8	31	37	0	27
Titan	⁽¹⁾—	⁽¹⁾—	⁽¹⁾—	⁽¹⁾—	⁽¹⁾—	⁽¹⁾—	⁽¹⁾—	⁽¹⁾—	⁽¹⁾—	⁽¹⁾—	⁽¹⁾—	⁽¹⁾—
Trojan	⁽¹⁾—	⁽¹⁾—	⁽¹⁾—	⁽¹⁾—	⁽¹⁾—	⁽¹⁾—	⁽¹⁾—	⁽¹⁾—	⁽¹⁾—	⁽¹⁾—	⁽¹⁾—	⁽¹⁾—
CVR(T)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
Mastiff	22	7	8	18	7	2	22	32	14	9	12	70
Saxon	⁽¹⁾—	⁽¹⁾—	⁽¹⁾—	⁽¹⁾—	⁽¹⁾—	⁽¹⁾—	⁽¹⁾—	⁽¹⁾—	⁽¹⁾—	⁽¹⁾—	⁽¹⁾—	⁽¹⁾—
Vector	0	0	0	0	0	0	19	24	0	19	3	9
Warrior	65	24	29	88	11	10	14	26	12	32	6	12
Afghanistan
Bulldog	⁽¹⁾—	⁽¹⁾—	⁽¹⁾—	⁽¹⁾—	⁽¹⁾—	⁽¹⁾—	⁽¹⁾—	⁽¹⁾—	⁽¹⁾—	⁽¹⁾—	⁽¹⁾—	⁽¹⁾—
Challenger 2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
Titan	⁽¹⁾—	⁽¹⁾—	⁽¹⁾—	⁽¹⁾—	⁽¹⁾—	⁽¹⁾—	⁽¹⁾—	⁽¹⁾—	⁽¹⁾—	⁽¹⁾—	⁽¹⁾—	⁽¹⁾—
Trojan	⁽¹⁾—	⁽¹⁾—	⁽¹⁾—	⁽¹⁾—	⁽¹⁾—	⁽¹⁾—	⁽¹⁾—	⁽¹⁾—	⁽¹⁾—	⁽¹⁾—	⁽¹⁾—	⁽¹⁾—
CVR(T)	6	0	59	6	30	42	76	2	53	2	0	25
Mastiff	17	0	5	22	2	7	0	0	6	0	13	2
Saxon	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Vector	35	14	1	4	3	0	1	9	3	1	0	8
Warrior	5	35	2	1	3	3	11	10	4	0	1	5
Other
Bulldog	4	6	3	28	8	11	35	7	6	12	1	4
Challenger 2	124	85	58	100	113	94	133	82	166	89	92	73
Titan	9	19	38	91	73	3	35	17	13	16	8	10
Trojan	9	8	13	93	43	4	71	19	28	57	118	50
CVR(T)	46	9	37	24	28	43	10	50	28	41	6	38
Mastiff	25	1	5	8	2	0	0	17	3	2	7	3
Saxon	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
Vector	0	2	1	0	1	1	3	2	7	2	1	0
Warrior	30	33	15	11	22	16	12	58	36	38	30	28
⁽¹⁾ Not deployed

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