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13 May 2009 : Column 765W—continued
Army: Recruitment
Willie Rennie: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what funding his Department budgeted for overseas travel expenses for Army recruitment teams in each of the last 10 years. [275214]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: Army recruiting teams (formerly known as regimental recruiting teams) operate in the United Kingdom and do not incur any costs for overseas travel.
However, the Army’s overseas pre-selection teams, which travel to countries that have a high number of people who have applied to join the Army, have incurred the following costs for flights, transport and accommodation charges for staff:
| Financial year | Cost (£) |
Costs prior to 2005-06 are not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Ex-servicemen: Military Decorations
Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many veterans badges have been issued to residents in Hendon to date. [272303]
Mr. Kevan Jones: This information is not readily available and could be collected only at disproportionate cost.
Iraq: Peacekeeping Operations
Mr. Ancram: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many (a) men and (b) women left the armed forces within six months of returning from service in (i) Iraq and (i) Afghanistan in 2007-08. [273313]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: An estimate of the number of male and female UK armed forces personnel identified as having left Iraq or Afghanistan during 2007-08 and who were no longer in the armed forces six months later is provided in the following table.
| Deployed c ountry | Male | Female | Total |
| Notes: 1. UK armed forces personnel includes all UK regular forces and Gurkhas but excludes all reservist personnel. 2. Data exclude repeat tours. Where individuals have deployed to both theatres in 2007-08 they are shown against the latest country of deployment. 3. Data include all personnel who left Iraq or Afghanistan in FY 2007-08 without returning thereafter and were no longer in the armed forces six months after having left Iraq or Afghanistan. 4. Data include all outflow reasons from the armed forces, including operational and non-operational fatalities. 5. All figures are rounded to the nearest 10, totals and sub-totals have been rounded separately and so may not equal the sum of their rounded parts. 6. All data are provisional and subject to review. | |||
Joint Rapid Reaction Force
Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence which regiment or battalion forms the Spearhead Land Element (SLE); whether it is fully equipped; whether the present SLE is deployed; and when the future SLE will take over from the present SLE. [274973]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: The 1st Battalion the Royal Anglian Regiment forms the Spearhead Land Element (SLE), which is not currently deployed. The SLE is fully equipped in accordance with the Joint Rapid Reaction Force Directive and operational mounting instructions. The next SLE will be provided by the Royal Highland Fusiliers, 2nd Battalion the Royal Regiment of Scotland, who will assume this role from 1 August 2009.
Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence which regiment or battalion forms the Small Scale Contingent Battle Group; whether it is fully equipped; whether the present Small Scale Contingent Battle Group is deployed; and when the future Small Scale Contingent Battle Group will take over. [274974]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: The 3rd Battalion the Parachute Regiment forms the Small Scale Contingent Battle Group (SSCBG), which is not currently deployed. The SSCBG is equipped according to their readiness state. The next SSCBG will be provided by 42 Commando Royal Marines, who will assume this role from 1 December 2009.
Military Aircraft: Helicopters
Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the (a) required, (b) actual and (c) fit for duty strength of each helicopter crew unit in each service is. [275046]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 27 February 2009, Official Report, column 1148W. The information requested in relation to fit for duty strengths for helicopter crew is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Royal Irish Regiment: Pay
Sammy Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence (1) what steps his Department has taken to inform former members of the Royal Irish Regiment who received overpayment through the Special Capital Payment Scheme that they are not required to reimburse the scheme; [275105]
(2) on what date it was determined that former members of the Royal Irish Regiment who received overpayments from the Special Capital Payments Scheme would not be required to reimburse the scheme; and if he will make a statement. [275109]
Mr. Kevan Jones: Former members of the Royal Irish Regiment remain required to reimburse any overpayment of special capital payment they have received.
Transport
Aviation: Greater London
Mr. Gerrard: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what assessment he has made of the effects on the number of flights over east London of the expansion of Heathrow Airport, with particular reference to Walthamstow. [274716]
Jim Fitzpatrick: The adding capacity at Heathrow Airport consultation document in November 2007 contained indicative flight path maps. Figure 9 shows that in 2002 Walthamstow was overflown by an average of 298 arriving aircraft a day at a height of 6,000 to 3,000 feet. Figures 8a and 8b show that in 2030, with a fully utilised third runway, numbers are predicted to fall to an average of 260 aircraft a day at a height of more than 6,000 feet. This is because, with a third runway, arrivals would be spread between three runways and final approaches would be further out from the airport, so aircraft would be higher at the point where they are overflying Walthamstow. Walthamstow is not overflown by departing aircraft at a height of less than 4,000 feet and that would continue to be the case with a third runway.
Buses: EU Law
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many (a) buses and (b) coaches have been subject to recall under the provisions of EU Directive 2007/46/EC Article 32, and EU Directive 2001/95/EC since each such Directive came into force. [273900]
Jim Fitzpatrick: There have been 57 recall notifications involving 12,462 vehicles. We do not have figures separately relating to buses and coaches.
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what assessment he has made of the merits of changing UK safety standards for buses in the light of EU Directive 2007/46/EC, with particular reference to the testing of seating and buggy space for passenger safety. [274394]
Jim Fitzpatrick: The Department for Transport has made no specific assessment of the merits of introducing EU Directive 2007/46/EC with respect to the safety of seating and buggy spaces on buses.
The seating requirements contained within current national regulations and those referred to in the new European directive are similar, but neither contains specific provisions for buggy spaces. General vehicle safety regulations would prevent a vehicle entering service which presented a clear hazard to its passengers or other road users.
Cycling: Mobile Phones
Jim Dowd: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what steps his Department is taking to discourage the use of hand-held mobile phones while cycling. [274754]
Jim Fitzpatrick: The Department for Transport advises cyclists through publications such as The Highway Code to “avoid any distractions when cycling” and to “keep both hands on the handlebars except when signalling or changing gear”; Tales of the Road—A highway code for young road users—also advises “not to use a personal stereo or mobile phone whilst cycling”.
Departmental Complaints
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what procedure his Department follows for dealing with complaints received (a) by e-mail, (b) by post, (c) by telephone and (d) via his Department’s website. [274517]
Mr. Hoon: All complaints to the Department for Transport, however they are received, are handled in accordance with the Department’s published complaints procedure. This can be viewed on the internet at:
Departmental Databases
David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what (a) guidelines and (b) safeguards his Department has in place for the commercial licensing of its departmental databases. [271992]
Mr. Hoon [holding answer 30 April 2009]: The Department for Transport has published an Information Charter
which sets out its commitment to comply with the Data Protection Act 1998 in the use and disclosure of personal data. Similarly, each of our agencies has published its own Information Charter which can be viewed on their websites.
Furthermore, the Department has issued guidelines on the reuse of its information for commercial purposes. These make clear that, among other requirements: resources must not be diverted from core functions (including any resources involved in anonymisation/preparation of the information, or in setting up and running the scheme); a third party must not own the intellectual property rights; only anonymised data should be used for bulk sharing with private sector bodies; and that the production of the information is not outside core functions of DFT.
Two of the Department's Executive agencies, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) and Driving Standards Agency (DSA), have a derogation from the Office of Public Sector Information to license the re-use of their information and are accredited under the Information Fair Trader Scheme. The information they sell is anonymised and the licences and corresponding contracts restrict how the data can be used.
David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport which of his Department's (a) centrally managed and (b) agency managed databases are commercially licensed for the use of private companies; to whom each is licensed; and how much revenue his Department has received for each licence. [271993]
Mr. Hoon [holding answer 30 April 2009]: None of the central Department for Transport's databases or those of its agencies are commercially licensed in their entirety for the use of private companies. Two of our agencies, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) and the Driver Standards Agency (DSA), license information extracted from their databases for commercial re-use. This is done in accordance with their derogation from the Office of Public Sector Information and their accreditation under the Information Fair Trader Scheme.
DVLA sell extracts from their Vehicle Database, consisting of anonymised vehicle data. The following figures show DVLA's total annual income from this over the last five years.
| £000 | |
| (1 )Provisional | |
A list of the companies that DVLA have licensed to re-use this information has been placed in the House Library.
The individual income from these companies could not be calculated without incurring disproportionate cost.
DSA license the use of the Official DSA Theory Test question banks and 16 simulated Hazard Perception Test video clips for use by other publishers by way of a Crown Copyright Licence Agreement.
There are currently 140 licence holders, some of which are private companies and others are sole traders (e.g. driving instructors). Income derived from royalty-paying licence holders over the past four years is as follows:
| £000 | |
A list of company royalty-paying licence holders has been placed in the House Library. The amounts paid by individual licence holders cannot be disclosed for reasons of commercial confidentiality.
Driving: Elderly
Mr. Blunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport whether he has conducted a cost-benefit analysis of testing drivers over the age of 70 years before their licences are renewed; and if he will make a statement. [273574]
Jim Fitzpatrick: No cost-benefit analysis of testing drivers over the age of 70 years before their licences are renewed, has been conducted.
Drivers must already meet specific health requirements when renewing a driving licence at age 70 and are required by law to notify the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency at any time about the onset or worsening of any health condition that may affect safe driving.
The current arrangements are based on an assessment of the risks that an individual poses to road safety and as such are balanced and proportionate. They do not penalise those persons aged 70 and over who are medically fit to hold a licence.
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