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30 Nov 2009 : Column 415W—continued
Departmental Information and Communications Technology
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence with which organisations his Department has had exclusivity agreements relating to information technology (a) hardware and (b) software in each of the last five years. [300519]
Mr. Kevan Jones: The Ministry of Defence has not held contracts which contain exclusivity agreements for the provision of information technology hardware or software over the last five years.
Departmental Meetings
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence which (a) individuals other than ministerial colleagues and officials of his Department and (b) organisations he met in an official capacity in the week commencing 9 November 2009. [301155]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: In their response to a Report by the Public Administration Select Committee "Lobbying: Access and influence in Whitehall", the Government agreed to publish online, on a quarterly basis, information about ministerial meetings with outside interest groups. Information for the period 1 October to 31 December 2009 will be published by Departments as soon as the information is ready.
Departmental Property
Willie Rennie: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many hours were spent filming by external organisations at locations owned by his Department in each of the last 12 months. [303164]
Mr. Kevan Jones: The requested information is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Departmental Public Expenditure
Dr. Murrison: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence under what budget headings his Department's allocation to the (a) Afghanistan Delivery Groups, (b) Tri-Departmental Stabilisation Unit and (c) Conflict Pool referred to in his Department's Winter Supplementary Estimate for 2009-10 will be spent. [303013]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: As outlined by the Foreign Secretary in a written ministerial statement on 25 March 2009, the newly combined conflict pool subsumes all activity under the conflict prevention pool and Stabilisation Aid Fund. Since this change occurred halfway through the financial year, the headings under which they appear in the parliamentary estimate have to remain as detailed at main estimates. Since then, it has been confirmed that the overall responsibility for the conflict pool rests with DFID and as such, the funding rests on that baseline.
The MOD will continue to run those programmes for which we have the necessary experience and technical knowledge. The £6.729 million indicated in the WSE represent the transfer of authority of those funds that the MOD no longer maintains financial authority for, as responsibility for all previous SAF programmes has now moved to DFID. Activities carried out by the MOD in terms of the SAF and CPP can be seen the Departmental Resource and Accounts:
Departmental Training
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what training sessions were attended by (a) Ministers and (b) special advisers in his Department at public expense in each of the last three years. [301374]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: Training is provided to Ministers and special advisers as part of their induction and continuing development in order to carry out their respective duties effectively under the "Ministerial Code" and the "Code of Conduct for Special Advisers". Details of training provided to Government Ministers by the National School of Government are publicly available and can be found at:
http://www.nationalschool.gov.uk/policy/Ministerial Programme/Table.asp
Departmental Working Hours
Andrew Selous: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many and what proportion of staff of his Department, its executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies work flexibly or part-time; and what his Department's policy is on making jobs available on a job-share or flexible basis. [301322]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: The information on how many staff who work part-time is published in the Defence Analytical Services and Advice (DASA) Civilian Manpower Statistics report, released in November 2009. This can be found at:
The data requested on the numbers of staff in non-departmental public bodies who work flexibly are not held centrally. We do have data on the number of staff in agencies and trading funds who work part-time. The figures are shown in the table.
The MOD provides a range of working patterns that supports the matching of the business needs with those of the individual. Very few posts are deemed unsuitable for alternative patterns of work. The civil service job share website is available to part-time staff wishing to find job share partners.
| Headcount | ||||
| 1 April 2009 | ||||
| MOD Executive Agency/Trading Fund Organisation | Part time | Full time | Total | Proportion (percentage) |
| Notes: 1. All numbers have been individually rounded to the nearest 10, and may total to sub totals and overall totals. 2. Percentages have been calculated from raw unrounded numbers. 3. Totals exclude personnel employed in the Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) and locally engaged civilians (LECs) for whom part time/full data is not available. Source: DASA (Quad-Service) | ||||
Driving
Dr. Ladyman: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what mechanisms are in place to ensure that staff who drive (a) a vehicle for which (i) his Department and (ii) one of its executive agencies is responsible have valid driving licences and (b) their own vehicles in the course of their official duties for (A) his Department and (B) one of its executive agencies have valid driving licences and insurance; what guidance is issued to those staff in respect of road safety while carrying out official duties; what steps are taken to monitor compliance with that guidance; what requirements there are on such staff to report to their line managers accidents in which they are involved while driving in the course of their official duties; and whether such reports are investigated. [302162]
Mr. Kevan Jones: MOD policy directs that all Service personnel and MOD civilians using vehicles provided by the Department, including privately owned vehicles used for official duties, must have a valid driving licence for the type of vehicle being used together with an appropriate level of insurance for private vehicles. Responsibility for applying this policy and checking compliance lies at business unit level.
MOD Personnel and MOD Transport policy directs that all business units, including agencies, provide advice on road safety to all staff. Such advice is normally provided by Defence Road Safety Advisors or at unit level by Unit Road Safety Officers. This advice is supplemented and supported by a rolling programme of campaigns such as the Defence Road Safety Week (23-27 November 2009). The policy also provides guidance for line managers on causes of impairment of driving and preventative measures, and on accident reporting requirements which also apply to private vehicles being used on official duties. It is a requirement that all incidents or accidents resulting in fatality or serious injury are investigated and lessons identified shared to prevent recurrence.
Members: Correspondence
Derek Wyatt: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence when he plans to reply to the letter of 14 July 2009 from the hon. Member for Sittingbourne and Sheppey's constituent A.R.F. Carter. [303123]
Bill Rammell: I replied to my hon. Friend yesterday. I sincerely apologise for the time it has taken to reply. This has been due to an administrative error.
RAF Welford
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether he expects RAF Welford to be placed under care and maintenance arrangements from September 2010. [302631]
Mr. Kevan Jones: There are no plans for RAF Welford to be placed under care and maintenance arrangements.
Special Reconnaissance Regiment: Northern Ireland
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many members of the Special Reconnaissance Regiment are based in Northern Ireland. [302824]
Bill Rammell: It is the long-standing policy of this and previous Governments not to comment on matters relating to UK special forces, as their disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice the capability, effectiveness or security of the armed forces.
Submarines
Willie Rennie: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what expenditure his Department has incurred on (a) the interim storage of laid-up submarines project and (b) the submarine dismantling project to date. [302359]
Bill Rammell: The ISOLUS (interim storage of laid-up submarines) project was renamed the submarine dismantling project (SDP) in May 2009. As it remained the same project, and the name change was implemented over a period of time, it is not possible to clearly distinguish between expenditure under each of the two names. A reasonable approximation, however, would be to consider expenditure from financial year 2009-10 as being under the SDP name, and expenditure in previous years as being under the ISOLUS name.
For expenditure on the project up to the end of financial year 2008-09, I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 24 November 2009, Official Report, column 54W. The current forecast spend on the project in financial year 2009-10 is £3.8 million.
Weapons
Willie Rennie: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence (1) how many weapons for which his Department has responsibility have been recorded as (a) lost and (b) stolen in each of the last 12 years; [301594]
(2) how many armed forces weapons were recorded as (a) lost and (b) stolen in 2008. [302548]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth [holding answer 24 November 2009]: The following tables set out details of Ministry of Defence firearms recorded as lost/stolen during each of the last 12 calendar years, or in the case of 2009 to date. With the exception of the latest figures for 2009, this information is already in the public domain having been provided in response to previous parliamentary questions. Some minor adjustments have been made to a small number of previously provided figures to reflect the latest available information.
| Lost weapons | ||||
| Pistols | Rifles | Sub-machine guns | Machine guns | |
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