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23 Nov 2009 : Column 20W—continued
Willie Rennie: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many requests for repair call-outs were received by Modern Housing Solutions in each region in each of the last 12 months. [300762]
Mr. Kevan Jones: The number of repair jobs raised in the last 12 months as a result of calls to Modern Housing Solutions (MHS) is provided in the table.
| Zone | |||||||
| East | London | North | South East | South West | West | Total | |
MHS provide a comprehensive repair and maintenance service to occupants of service family accommodation in England and Wales. Repair requests range from emergencies such as burst water pipes to routine tasks associated with the everyday wear and tear of domestic occupation. Figures also include work orders raised in relation to communal areas, children's playgrounds and other facilities managed by MHS.
Armed Forces: Pay
Steve Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many and what proportion of armed forces personnel earn more than £50,000 per annum. [300812]
Mr. Kevan Jones: At 1 September 2009, there were 14,430 personnel earning more than £50,000 per annum in gross basic pay, including X Factor but excluding allowances, which represents 8.5 per cent. of trained UK Regular Armed Forces personnel.
Steve Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how much was paid in salary and wage costs for armed forces personnel in the last 12 months; and what estimate he has made of the proportion paid to such personnel who earn more than £50,000 per annum. [300846]
Mr. Kevan Jones: For Financial Year 2008-09 the total bill for basic gross pay for Regular and Reserve forces, including X Factor but excluding allowances, was £5,928,226,958.00.
An estimated total of £934,300,000.00 (15.76 per cent. of total basic pay) was paid to those personnel earning more than £50,000 per annum.
Climate Change
Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many (a) Ministers and (b) civil servants from his Department will be attending the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in an official capacity. [300885]
Mr. Kevan Jones: The Department of Energy and Climate Change will determine the official UK delegation list. This list is not finalised, but at present does not contain any MOD Ministers or officials.
Nevertheless, the MOD takes the issue of climate change seriously and recognises the importance of achieving a strong international agreement to address climate change, which will also be of benefit for future global stability and security. In December 2008 the MOD published a climate change strategy, which can be found online at:
Defence: Procurement
Danny Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the stages were of the procurement process for the new sniper rifle sight recently deployed by the army. [300349]
Mr. Quentin Davies: The original requirement was for a number of Sniper Thermal Imaging Capability (STIC) systems as an Urgent Operational Requirement. This was advertised in the Defence Contracts Bulletin and eight companies expressed an interest. Five companies were unable to meet the key requirement to provide a thermal device that would work in line with the in-service day sight, and a further two companies could not supply equipment in time for user trials. The remaining company's equipment was trialled, modified in the light of the trials results and a contract for the supply of STIC was agreed with Qioptiq Ltd. in March 2008. Since the initial contract further STIC units have been ordered from the company. The Sniper Thermal Imaging Capability was introduced into service in July 2008.
Departmental Empty Property
Willie Rennie: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many properties owned by his Department had been unused for (a) under three, (b) between three and six, (c) between six and 12, (d) between 12 and 24 and (e) between 24 and 36 months on the latest date for which figures are available; and how many such properties had been unused for over five years on that date. [300674]
Mr. Kevan Jones: The requested information is not held in the format requested and is not held centrally. This information could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
The Ministry of Defence keeps its estate in Great Britain, around 240,000 hectares, under continual review to ensure that it is no larger than is required for defence purposes. Land and property may be used temporarily, or be vacant for periods, for many reasons and no central record is maintained.
Departmental Marketing
Willie Rennie: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how much his Department has spent on advertising in the last 12 months. [301404]
Mr. Kevan Jones: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 26 October 2009, Official Report, column 34W.
Investment Approvals Board
Dr. Murrison: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what programmes the Investment Approvals Board has under consideration; and by what date the Board is expected to make its determination in each case. [300210]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: The Investment Approvals Board considers all major investment projects undertaken by the Department both out of committee and at its meetings. The board sets no rigid timetable; cases are considered once they are sufficiently mature.
Territorial Army: Finance
Mr. Lancaster: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what assessment he made of the likely effect on Territorial Army training of the original £20 million reduction in the Territorial Army budget made in the current financial year. [300538]
Bill Rammell: The effect of the £20 million reduction in Territorial Army activity this year was to suspend the majority of training activity that was not directly supporting preparations for Operations. Following the Defence Secretary's subsequent announcement on 28 October 2009, Official Report, column 353, an additional £20 million has been provided to enable routine Territorial Army activity to continue for the remainder of the year. Commanding Officers have been revising their training plans to reflect this clear direction.
Health
Antibiotics
Derek Twigg: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much was spent on each brand of antibiotics in each primary care trust area in (a) 2007 and (b) 2008. [300254]
Phil Hope: The net ingredient cost by brand of drug for each primary care trust, in the period specified, has been placed in the Library.
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Paul Rowen: To ask the Secretary of State for Health with reference to the answer of 5 November 2009, Official Report, column 1165W, on chronic fatigue syndrome, what discussions his Department has had with myalgic encephalomyelitis charities and campaign groups on recognition of the condition as a notifiable disease. [300427]
Ann Keen: Since 2007, the Department of Health has received a large number of requests from many organisations, including chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME) stakeholders, campaigning for their disease or condition to be recognised as a notifiable disease. The Department's position remains that this classification should be used only for a relatively small number of infectious diseases where monitoring is required to identify sources of infection, and not as a means for collecting statistical information on the prevalence of specific conditions.
We have had no recent discussions with CFS/ME charities or campaign groups on this issue.
Health: Screening
Derek Twigg: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many health checks for those aged between 40 and 74 years were carried out by general practitioners in (a) 2007 and (b) 2008. [300255]
Ann Keen: The NHS Health Check programme is a systematic programme that assesses all those eligible between the ages of 40 and 74 for their risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes and kidney disease. The aim is to identify people's risk of these diseases earlier and support them to reduce their risk through lifestyle changes, such as smoking cessation or weight management programme, or through clinical management such as prescribing statins.
Primary care trusts began phased implementation of the NHS Health Check programme in April 2009. General practitioners were not, therefore, carrying out NHS health checks before then. Prior to this, some primary care trusts did have similar programmes in place that general practitioners were involved in. However, we do not collect information centrally about these.
Hepatitis
Dr. Iddon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what responsibility (a) his Department, (b) strategic health authorities, (c) NHS hospital trusts and (d) primary care trusts have for implementing the Hepatitis C Action Plan for England; what recent assessment he has made of progress in the implementation of the Plan; and if he will make a statement. [301148]
Gillian Merron: The Department has set a national framework in the Hepatitis C Action Plan for England (2004) for the national health service and other key stakeholders to improve the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of hepatitis C. A copy has already been placed in the Library. Primary care trusts (PCTs) are responsible for implementing the action plan at the local level and commissioning services from NHS hospital trusts and others according to local needs and priorities. Strategic health authorities are responsible for seeing that appropriate local NHS arrangements are in place to meet the objectives of the action plan.
The NHS has made significant progress in implementing the Action Plan. For example, the Association of Greater Manchester PCTs is funding a local hepatitis C strategy to improve and co-ordinate local services. NHS East Midlands has developed a regional hepatitis C strategy overseen by a regional
multi-agency group. The Department has supported implementation of the Action Plan since 2004 with an ongoing national hepatitis C awareness campaign for healthcare professionals and the public.
Surveillance of hepatitis C testing, diagnosis and prescribing indicates that more patients with hepatitis C are being tested, diagnosed and treated.
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