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28 Apr 2009 : Column 1158W—continued
Nuclear Weapons: Finance
Nick Harvey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence from which budget the additional expenditure on the nuclear deterrent announced in the Comprehensive Spending Review is being drawn. [271400]
Mr. Hutton: Additional resources were made available to the Ministry of Defence to fund the activity necessary over the Comprehensive Spending Review 2007 period to implement the decisions set out in the December 2006 White Paper: “The Future of the UK’s Nuclear Deterrent” (Cm 6994). Those resources are allocated by central staff to Defence Equipment and Support, which is responsible for the acquisition and logistic support of all military equipment.
The Government have made it clear that the investment required to maintain our deterrent will not come at the expense of the conventional capabilities our armed forces need.
RAF Leuchars
Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many service personnel will be redeployed and re-assigned as a result of the reduction in the number of Tornado F3 fighter jets at RAF Leuchars. [270477]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: Detailed planning is under way and it is too soon to provide details of the outcome of this process. Manpower on the station will be carefully managed, taking account of the planned introduction of Typhoon Squadrons at RAF Leuchars.
Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what assessment the Department has made of the likely operational effect of the reduction in the number of Tornado F3 fighter jets based at RAF Leuchars on the commitments of squadrons 43 (Fighter) and III (Fighter). [270478]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: The Tornado F3 force will be reduced to a size commensurate with its UK-based air defence duties and those of the Falkland Islands, until it is replaced in the latter role by Typhoon later this year. The Tornado F3 force will continue to maintain the Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) North commitment until its out of service date and the transition of UK and Falkland Islands air defence capability between F3 and Typhoon will remain seamless.
Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence when the decision was taken to reduce the number of Tornado F3 fighter jets in operation at RAF Leuchars; and when personnel at the station were informed of the reduction. [270479]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: The decision to reduce the number of Tornado F3 was considered in the course of the routine defence planning cycle and taken this April. The station commander at RAF Leuchars was informed of the decision on 8 April 2009. Briefings to station personnel commenced at that time.
Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the timetable is for the reduction in the number of Tornado F3 fighter jets in operation at RAF Leuchars. [270480]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: We plan to reduce the Tornado F3 force by September this year. Work continues to develop the detailed timetable for this reduction.
Somalia: Piracy
Mr. Hague: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many individuals have been apprehended by Royal Navy vessels operating in the Gulf of Aden in relation to pirate activity in the last 12 months; how many of these have been (a) released, (b) transferred to Kenyan custody and (c) otherwise dealt with; and if he will make a statement. [271013]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: The Royal Navy has been conducting specific counter-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden since October 2008 in order to deter and disrupt pirate activity in accordance with the provisions of the United Nations Conventions on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
UK vessels have been involved in a small number of incidents involving a total of 47 suspected pirates. Of these, eight suspected pirates were considered to have sufficient evidence on which to charge and were subsequently detained and transferred to Kenya for prosecution under the provisions of a Memorandum of Understanding. 37 were permitted to sail back to their
coastal waters once all suspected piratical equipment was confiscated. Two suspected pirates were killed during the course of a counter-piracy operation.
Trident: Finance
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how much he estimates his Department will spend on the renewal of the Trident nuclear weapons system in each of the next six financial years. [271614]
Mr. Hutton: The estimated costs of the programme to maintain the United Kingdom's deterrent capability beyond the life of the current system, as set out in the December 2006 White Paper, 'The Future of the United Kingdom's Nuclear Deterrent' (Cm 6994), and endorsed by Parliament on 14 March 2007, over the next two years are:
| £ million at outturn prices | |
Costs are greater in 2009-10 than previously announced due to the agreement with the US to design and manufacture a Common Missile Compartment. However, this is the result of re-profiling of funding rather than cost growth in that year and the overall budgetary provision for the successor deterrent has not changed.
Spending plans for 2011-12 and beyond will be set as part of the Government's spending review process.
War Pensions
Mr. Crausby: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many people are in receipt of a war pension. [271245]
Mr. Kevan Jones: As at 31 December 2008, there were 159,300 disablement pensioners in receipt of a war pension.
Warships: Deployment
Nick Harvey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the total nautical mileage undertaken by the Royal Navy surface fleet was in each year since 1997. [271391]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: Data on nautical mileage undertaken by the Royal Navy surface fleet is not held centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Agriculture: Subsidies
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimate he has made of the sums to be allocated to farming subsidies by his Department in each of the next six financial years. [271798]
Jane Kennedy:
The table shows ceilings (maximum amounts) that the UK can draw from the EU budget (which the UK contributes to) to make direct payments to farmers under EU support schemes included in pillar 1 of the EU common agricultural policy. The totals
reflect amounts subtracted where modulation arrangements have been applied (the subtracted funds being redirected to pillar 2).
The vast majority of these payments fall under the Single Payment Scheme (SPS), and are decoupled from production. Actual payments will depend on future changes to EU legislation, future decisions on modulation, and factors such as the application of financial discipline; but will in any case be less than the permitted ceilings.
| UK direct payments | |
| Calendar year | UK direct payments (modulation subtracted) (€ million) |
Current forecasts are only available up to 2012.
Climate Change: Finance
Susan Kramer: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimate he has made of his Department's expenditure on climate change adaptation measures in 2008-09. [269069]
Jane Kennedy: DEFRA delivers the ‘Adapting to Climate Change Programme’, which is a cross-Government programme which aims to help society adapt to climate change. The role of the programme is to develop and provide a comprehensive evidence base including adaptation tools, to raise awareness of the need to adapt, to measure success and to work across Government at all levels to embed adaptation.
Measuring adapting to climate change in expenditure does not give a full picture, it is also about encouraging behaviour change and increasing resilience to risk which does not always involve additional expenditure.
DEFRA and DECC jointly fund the Hadley Centre, and we also fund the production the new UK Climate Projections, due to be launched in summer 2009.
Adapting to climate change forms parts of many areas of DEFRA's work, and it is not always possible to distinguish the costs associated with adaptation. In many cases it will be the way we do something that will help us adapt, rather than a specific project. So it is not possible accurately to estimate the total amount of expenditure on adaptation measures, for example in areas such as animal health, farming and protection of the environment.
A range of other activities which DEFRA leads on will also help adapt to climate change, for example, the introduction of measures to assist communities in adapting to future risks from flooding and work arising from recommendations in the Pitt review. This comes from the central DEFRA budget so it is incorporated into a wider range of expenditure which delivers many benefits, not only on adaptation.
Departmental ICT
Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the average server capacity utilisation by each division of his Department was in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement. [269581]
Huw Irranca-Davies: The following figures show an average 24/7 central processing unit utilisation for those servers covered by IBM’s server monitoring tool during March and April 2009.
15 per cent. on Unix servers
6 per cent. on Wintel servers
We have not been able to produce historical information without incurring disproportionate cost.
Providing figures broken down to divisional level is not possible. Many servers are shared across the Department by a number of divisions. Figures for individual usage could therefore not be obtained.
Departmental Redundancy
Mr. Roger Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many of his Department’s staff have been made redundant in each of the last three years; how much compensation was paid to those made redundant in each of the last three years; how many people he expects to be made redundant from his Department in (a) 2009 and (b) 2010; how much he expects to pay in compensation in respect of such redundancies in each year; and if he will make a statement. [266391]
Huw Irranca-Davies: The following table (table 1) indicates how many staff from DEFRA have been made redundant in each of the last three years and how much compensation was paid to those made redundant. Please note that information is provided in financial years, not calendar years.
For staff leaving on compulsory or flexible severance terms ‘compensation’ refers to the lump sum compensation payment made. For staff leaving on compulsory, flexible or approved early retirement schemes ‘compensation’ includes lump sum compensation payment, capitalised cost of paying pension or annual compensation payment, pension enhancement and the cost of bringing forward payment of pension lump sum.
The level of compensation paid to each individual is in accordance with the rules set out in the relevant Civil Service Compensation Scheme.
| Table 1: Number of staff made redundant and compensation paid over the previous three financial years | ||
| Financial year | Number of staff | Compensation (£ to the nearest 25,000) |
The following table (table 2) indicates how many staff are expected to be made redundant in 2009-10 and 2010-11 and estimated amount of compensation. Again, information is provided in financial rather than calendar years and the definitions of ‘compensation’ used above stand.
| Table 2: Estimated number of staff likely to be made redundant and estimated compensation for financial years 2009-10 and 2010-11 | ||
| Financial year( 1) | Number of staff | Compensation (£ to the nearest 25,000) |
| (1) Please see below for narrative regarding work force planning for 2009-10 and 2010-11. (2) Approximately. | ||
The five people noted above for financial year 2009-10 are currently undertaking redundancy and redeployment processes which will conclude during 2009. We will continue to work with staff, trade unions and the Cabinet Office throughout the redundancy and redeployment period to try and secure suitable alternative employment wherever possible. However, should any of these individuals not secure suitable alternative employment within a reasonable time, they will be issued notice of redundancy.
Farmers
Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimate his Department has made of the number of (a) hill and (b) dairy farmers who will leave the industry in 2009. [270442]
Jane Kennedy: The Department has made no estimate of the number of hill farmers or dairy farmers who will leave the industry in 2009.
Farmers: Income
Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the estimated income of the (a) farming and (b) dairy farming sector was in (i) 2006, (ii) 2007 and (iii) 2008. [270443]
Jane Kennedy: The estimated Farm Business Income(1) of (a) all farm types and (b) dairy farms for 2006-07, 2007-08 and 2008-09 is shown in the following table.
| Average farm business income( 1 ) per farm | |||
| £/farm | |||
| Farm type | 2006-07 | 2007-08 | 2008-09( 2) |
| (1) Farm Business Income represents the financial return to all unpaid labour (farmers and spouses, non-principal partners and directors and their spouses and family workers) and on all their capital invested in the farm business, including land and buildings. (2 )Provisional Note: Years ending in end-February Source: Farm Business Survey | |||
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