House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 11 Nov 2009 (pt 0011)

11 Nov 2009 : Column 407W—continued

Departmental Official Cars

Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the cost of provision of Government cars to special advisers in his Department was in the last 12 months. [299585]

Bill Rammell: No special advisers are provided with an allocated Government car and driver. As with all civil servants, special advisers may use an official car or taxi in properly defined circumstances. Details of such use is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Iraq and Afghanistan: Peacekeeping Operations

Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many medals have been received by members of the Gibraltar regiment in respect of service in (a) Iraq and (b) Afghanistan since 2001. [296911]

Mr. Kevan Jones [holding 2 November 2009]: Since 2001 the members of the Royal Gibraltar Regiment have received 55 Iraq Medals, one Iraq Medal with clasp and one United States Bronze Star in respect of service in Iraq. For service in Afghanistan one Military Cross, 14 Operational Service Medals with Afghanistan clasp and two United States Commendation Medals have been awarded.

Military Aircraft: Helicopters

Mr. Benyon: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what advice he received from (a) the Chief of General Staff, (b) operational commanders and (c) other senior Army personnel on the decision to sell the Army's stock of Gazelle helicopters. [299043]

Mr. Quentin Davies: The advice received from the Defence boards which includes the chiefs of staff, was to dispose of those Gazelle helicopters which no longer have a role in operations.

Mr. Gerald Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what offers of helicopters he has received from the private sector in the last two years; and if he will make a statement. [299120]

11 Nov 2009 : Column 408W

Mr. Quentin Davies: The Ministry of Defence occasionally receives offers from industry to purchase or lease helicopters in support of operations. I am withholding the information as its disclosure would prejudice commercial interests.

Delivering helicopter capability is complex and beyond the immediate procurement of new airframes, additional time and cost is required to modify helicopters to meet specific operational and environmental threats and likely mission requirements, to certify the aircraft, to deliver support arrangements and to train air and ground crew. In order to deliver increased operational helicopter capability quickly, it has often proven more effective to invest in maximising the return from our existing fleets.

Where possible though we have sought to make use of commercial capacity to deliver freight. We have a contract for routine freight movement in Afghanistan, which has allowed our own departmental helicopters to focus on supporting military operations.

Nuclear Weapons: Decommissioning

Mr. Dai Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence pursuant to the answer of 21 October 2009, Official Report, column 1469W, on what dates since October 2008 the specialist technical exchanges referred to in the answer have taken place; which of these involved discussion or demonstration of best practice on warhead disassembly; and whether any transfer of fissile material took place during such exchanges. [298506]

Bill Rammell: I am withholding further detail of individual technical exchanges conducted with the US through the 1958 Mutual Defence Agreement for the purpose of safeguarding national security.

Puma Helicopters

Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what assessment has been made of the probability of Puma helicopter aircrew surviving crashes of differing severity; and if he will make a statement. [298384]

Bill Rammell: We routinely assess the safety of our aircraft to ensure that the equipment remains safe to operate and that the risks to personnel are reduced to as low as reasonably practicable, as is required of us under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. As a result we have introduced a number of modifications to the Puma aircraft to enhance its safety through-life, and are planning further enhancements as part of life extension programme for the aircraft which we contacted with Eurocopter on 18 September 2009.

Reservists

Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many reservists are deployed on operations overseas. [297941]

Bill Rammell: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 10 November 2009, Official Report, column 238W.

11 Nov 2009 : Column 409W

Territorial Army

Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many Territorial Army personnel of each rank there were in each year since 1997. [297940]

11 Nov 2009 : Column 410W

Bill Rammell: The available data are given in the following table.

Territorial Army strength by paid rank: 1997 to 2009
Date	All TA personnel	All TA officers	Brigadier	Colonel	Lt. Colonel	Major	Captain	Lieutenant	Second Lieutenant
April 1997	57,620	6,560	⁽¹⁾-	70	270	1,990	2,710	960	560
April 1998	57,600	6,780	⁽¹⁾-	70	300	2,090	2,780	930	600
April 1999	52,210	6,590	⁽¹⁾-	70	300	2,060	2,680	860	610
April 2000	45,480	6,200	⁽¹⁾-	70	300	1,940	2,460	860	570
April 2001	41,720	5,780	⁽¹⁾-	80	280	1,790	2,250	840	540
April 2002	40,660	5,800	⁽¹⁾-	80	270	1,770	2,220	880	560
April 2003	39,330	5,770	⁽¹⁾-	80	290	1,640	2,160	880	710
April 2004	38,120	5,900	⁽¹⁾-	80	320	1,680	2,240	840	730
April 2005	37,260	5,760	⁽¹⁾-	90	320	1,740	2,160	770	680
April 2006	38,460	5,580	10	90	340	1,680	2,110	810	560
March 2007	36,790	5,320	10	90	340	1,700	2,030	720	430
October 2008	⁽²⁾34,330	⁽³⁾-	⁽³⁾-	⁽³⁾-	⁽³⁾-	⁽³⁾-	⁽³⁾-	⁽³⁾-	⁽³⁾-
April 2009	⁽²⁾35,320	⁽³⁾-	⁽³⁾-	⁽³⁾-	⁽³⁾-	⁽³⁾-	⁽³⁾-	⁽³⁾-	⁽³⁾-
September 2009	⁽²⁾34,380	⁽³⁾-	⁽³⁾-	⁽³⁾-	⁽³⁾-	⁽³⁾-	⁽³⁾-	⁽³⁾-	⁽³⁾-

Date	All TA other ranks	WO1	WO2	Staff Sergeant	Sergeant	Corporal	Lance Corporal	Private
April 1997	51,060	170	1,530	2,410	4,060	6,380	7,320	29,200
April 1998	50,820	200	1,560	2,410	4,020	6,340	7,210	29,070
April 1999	45,620	200	1,590	2,360	3,950	6,100	6,910	24,510
April 2000	39,280	200	1,520	2,130	3,490	5,410	6,110	20,420
April 2001	35,940	190	1,340	1,840	3,080	4,780	5,380	19,340
April 2002	34,860	190	1,320	1,830	2,910	4,570	4,960	19,080
April 2003	33,570	180	1,300	1,760	2,790	4,180	4,550	18,740
April 2004	32,220	180	1,300	1,720	2,760	3,900	4,400	17,960
April 2005	31,490	210	1,310	1,730	2,670	3,680	4,070	17,820
April 2006	32,880	220	1,340	1,720	2,560	3,480	3,760	19,790
March 2007	31,470	230	1,330	1,690	2,420	3,230	3,450	19,110
October 2008	⁽³⁾-	⁽³⁾-	⁽³⁾-	⁽³⁾-	⁽³⁾-	⁽³⁾-	⁽³⁾-	⁽³⁾-
April 2009	⁽³⁾-	⁽³⁾-	⁽³⁾-	⁽³⁾-	⁽³⁾-	⁽³⁾-	⁽³⁾-	⁽³⁾-
September 2009	⁽³⁾-	⁽³⁾-	⁽³⁾-	⁽³⁾-	⁽³⁾-	⁽³⁾-	⁽³⁾-	⁽³⁾-
⁽¹⁾ = Zero or rounded to zero. ⁽²⁾ = Denotes provisional. ⁽³⁾ = Denotes unavailable. Notes: TA Personnel include Group A and B, Mobilised TA, OTC and NRPS. FTRS are excluded. April 2003 includes 60 TA soldiers of unknown rank. After April 2007 Territorial Army Officer and Soldier breakdowns are not included due to JPA data validation issues. Figures have been rounded to 10; numbers ending in "5" have been rounded to the nearest multiple of 20 to prevent systematic bias.

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