Written Answers to Questions
Monday 15 June 2009
International Development
Developing Countries: Malaria
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what ring-fenced uplift in resources each of his Department’s in-country programmes has received to fund the procurement of bed-nets in each of the next three years. [279197]
Mr. Thomas: As stated in the answer of 24 March 2009, Official Report, column 264W, the costs of supplying 20 million bed nets for Africa are being drawn from our country programme budget allocations for the period 2008-09 to 2010-11. No additional resources have been specifically ring-fenced for this purpose.
Liberia: Corruption
Mr. Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what aid the UK has given to Liberia to tackle corruption in the last three years; and what his most recent assessment is of levels of corruption in Liberia. [279376]
Mr. Thomas: Since 2005 the Department for International Development (DFID) has contributed approximately £150,000 in supporting the Government of Liberia in its efforts to establish the Liberian Anti-Corruption Commission (LACC) and to develop and finalise its National Anti-Corruption Strategy. In 2008, DFID also paid off outstanding arrears owed by the Liberian General Auditing Commission (GAC), which amounted to a total of $43,145, allowing the Auditor General and his staff to attend specialised training courses to enable them to undertake more comprehensive and detailed audits of government finances.
The Government of Liberia is firmly committed to tackling corruption and prosecuting those involved. Though challenges still remain, significant progress has been made to improve financial checks and balances, to improve the capacity of the Liberian General Auditing Commission and in sending for prosecution any individuals (government or otherwise) accused of corruption.
United Nations: Females
Mr. Moore: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what steps he is taking to support the creation of a United Nations Agency for Women; and if he will make a statement. [279076]
Mr. Thomas: The UK Government's policy is to support the establishment of a single United Nations (UN) agency for women. The UK Government are working closely with other UN member states to get agreement through the General Assembly to establish such an agency.
Defence
Afghanistan: Peacekeeping Operations
Mr. Lancaster: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether the pre-deployment urgent operational requirements planned for the Tornado GR4s due to be deployed to Afghanistan have been completed. [279736]
Bill Rammell: Yes. And I plan on making a written statement to the House shortly.
Air Force: Manpower
Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the (a) required and (b) actual number of pilots for each aircraft type in the RAF is. [279958] [Official Report, 1 July 2009, Vol. 495, c. 5MC.]
Bill Rammell: The information requested is provided in the following table:
| Aircraft type | Required | Actual |
Armed Forces: Deployment
Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many and what percentage of pinch-point trades are in breach of their (a) tour interval guidelines and (b) individual separated service guidelines. [279955]
Bill Rammell: I refer the hon. Member to the answer my predecessor gave on 23 February 2009, Official Report, column 19W. The position remains the same and there is nothing further I can add.
Armed Forces: Pensions
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will estimate the cost of paying pensions at an equivalent level for UK service people to (a) Commonwealth soldiers and (b) soldiers of other nationalities who served in the British armed forces between 1947 and 2004. [278716]
Mr. Kevan Jones: All non-British personnel serving now in the armed forces have exactly the same pension arrangements as the wider armed forces. It has long been Government policy not to implement improvements to pensions and similar benefits retrospectively, a policy that has been applied across the public sector in the United Kingdom. Information of the full cost of doing so is not available, however, it has been estimated that to pay retrospective pensions to Gurkhas would cost the MOD £1.5 billion.
Armoured Fighting Vehicles
Ann Winterton: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many Panther vehicles are being upgraded as part of the recently announced £20 million improvement package. [279553]
Mr. Quentin Davies: 67 Panther Command and Liaison vehicles are being modified to a Theatre Entry Standard.
Mr. Gerald Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what plans his Department has for the role of the Vector vehicle fleet following its withdrawal from operations; and whether planned upgrades to the fleet suspension system and wheel hubs will continue. [279647]
Mr. Quentin Davies: The future role of the Vector Light Protected Patrol Vehicle when it is withdrawn from operations in Afghanistan is under review. The current programme to upgrade the suspension and wheel hubs of the fleet of Vector will continue.
Army: Training
Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many infantry combatants' courses at Catterick Infantry Training Centre have been cancelled in the last 12 months. [279939]
Bill Rammell: Between 1 April 2008 and 31 March 2009, the last full year for which records are available, two Combat Infantryman Courses for the Parachute Regiment and one for the Guards were cancelled.
Defence Infrastructure Information Project
Dr. Murrison: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the cost of the Release 2C stage of the Defence Infrastructure Information Project has been, broken down by budgetary heading; how many desktop terminals have been delivered under the project; and if he will make a statement. [278985]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth:
The Defence Information Infrastructure (DII) programme will deliver a single, secure, coherent and high quality computer infrastructure
service across the whole of defence. The associated software functionality is being delivered in stages, called Releases, but I can confirm there is no Release called “2C”. The costs of software releases are not held separately as they are an intrinsic part of the wider delivery nor are they associated with desktop terminal numbers.
The current contract will run until 2015 and is let on an incremental basis. It includes Increment 1, Increment 2a and 2b, which provide office, mobile and deployable capabilities, and in January 2009 we signed a contract extension for Increment 2c, to provide new operational capability in the Top Secret domain. The approved programme costs for Increment 2c are £257 million; the contract element is £191 million at 2008 prices.
The whole DII Programme has to date delivered 75,000 terminals, with 190,000 users now live on the system.
Defence: Procurement
Mr. Bruce George: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many of the recommendations contained in the National Audit Office report on the Risk of Fraud in Defence Procurement, Session 1994-5, HC 258, have been (a) fully and (b) partially implemented. [278799]
Mr. Quentin Davies: The conclusions made by the National Audit Office Report on the Risk of Fraud in Defence Procurement reflect the progress made by the Ministry of Defence and have been implemented in full or in part.
The report concluded overall that the Department had made good progress in implementing actions on those areas of procurement most at risk and recognised that a plan was in place to strengthen existing measures and introduce new fraud deterrence and detection initiatives. In 1999, the Department created the Defence Fraud Analysis Unit (DFAU), and in 2006 established the Defence Irregularity Reporting Cell to act as the central point for the reporting of all suspicions of irregularity, including fraud, theft and corruption. Defence Equipment and Support, which was formed in 2007, has created a Defence Crime Forum to address the risk of fraud and corruption in the procurement environment.
Departmental Billing
Mr. Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the average number of days taken to pay an invoice by (a) his Department and (b) each of its executive agencies was in each month since November 2008. [279523]
Mr. Kevan Jones [holding answer 12 June 2009]: The Department does not keep statistics on the average number of days taken to pay suppliers' invoices. This information could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
The Department is working towards payment performance within a target date of 10 working days in accordance with the Government's Prompt Payment Initiative. Information currently available for the Department, its agencies and trading funds since November 2008 is as follows:
| Percentage paid within 10 days | ||||
| MOD and agencies | UKHO | Met Office | DSTL | |
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