| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
16 Dec 2009 : Column 1205W—continued
Cadets
Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence which overseas nationalities are permitted to serve in the UK Combined Cadet Force. [307404]
Mr. Kevan Jones: All boys and girls over the age of 13 who are pupils of the school are eligible to join the Combined Cadet Force (CCF); there are no nationality restrictions.
There are three different types of adult instructors in the CCF:
1. CCF officers who are part of the Reserve Forces and must meet at least one of the following criteria:
at all times since birth been a British subject or a citizen of the Irish Republic;
be permanently domiciled in the UK;
have been born in a country or territory which is, or then was, within the Commonwealth or the Irish Republic;
both parents were born in a country or territory which, is or then was, within the Commonwealth or the Irish Republic, or was at death, a British subject or a citizen of the Irish Republic.
2. School Staff Instructors; where there are no nationality restrictions but applications have to be approved by the Brigade.
3. Civilian Instructors; where there are no nationality restrictions but applications have to be approved by the Brigade.
Caparo Group
Mr. Graham Stuart: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence pursuant to the answer of 3 December 2009, Official Report, column 906W, on Caparo Group, what contracts his Department holds with the Caparo Group and its companies; and what the monetary value of each is. [307494]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: The Department currently holds six contracts with the Caparo Group and its companies, totalling £488,784, mainly for automotive parts such as brake products, including discs, fluid and hoses for military support vehicles. I am withholding the breakdown of this information, as its disclosure would prejudice commercial interests.
Civil Servants: Compensation
Dr. Murrison: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence (1) how much has been paid out to civil servants in his Department under the Civil Service no-fault compensation scheme in each year since the scheme was established; [300212]
(2) what the 10 highest payments made to civil servants in his Department under the Civil Service no-fault compensation scheme have been on each ground for payment since the scheme was established. [300213]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: There is no "civil service no-fault compensation scheme". However, the civil service injury benefits scheme (CSIBS) pays benefits regardless of whether injury or death of an employee results from the negligence of the Crown as the employer. For this reason, benefits are sometimes described as being paid on a no-fault basis. This answer is therefore based on the CSIBS.
The aim of the CSIBS is to provide a guaranteed level of income to the civil servant (or a dependant) where an injury (or death) at work results in the loss of earnings or earnings capacity. No compensation is paid for pain or suffering and benefits are reduced or expunged where damages are awarded for the same accident. Benefits are not payable where the injury or death is wholly or mainly due to the person's own serious and culpable negligence or misconduct.
Departmental records do not provide the value of CSIBS payments in such a way as to allow the questions to be answered as presented and to do so would incur disproportionate cost. However, in the period April to
October 2009 the overall value of permanent awards was £378,622.51. By comparison, in the same period the armed forces compensation scheme paid out £19 million to members of the armed forces injured due to service, and the dependents of those killed due to service.
Defence: Procurement
Danny Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence pursuant to the answer of 23 November 2009, Official Report, column 22W, on defence: procurement, by what mechanism lessons learned from the procurement of the new sniper rifle sight will be applied to future procurement exercises. [307773]
Mr. Quentin Davies: There were no specific lessons learned from procurement of the Sniper Thermal Imaging Capability. This capability was procured as an Urgent Operational Requirement and met the needs of the users within the expected delivery date.
Departmental Conferences
Mr. Baron: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence which conferences held overseas have been attended by civil servants based in his Department in the last three years; and what the cost to the public purse was of such attendance at each conference. [305868]
Mr. Kevan Jones: This information is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Expenditure on conferences must be incurred in accordance with the principles of the Treasury publications Managing Public Money and Regularity, Propriety and Value for Money.
Departmental Electronic Equipment
Mr. Hands: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many plasma screen televisions his Department has purchased since 2001; and what the cost has been of purchasing and installing such screens in each such year. [306081]
Mr. Quentin Davies: This information is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
All expenditure has to be incurred in accordance with the principles of the Treasury publications Managing Public Money and Regularity, Propriety and Value for Money.
Departmental Finance
Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the (a) approved budget for the 10-year equipment budget and (b) expenditure on the 10-year equipment programme was in each year since 1997. [307357]
Mr. Quentin Davies:
The MOD does not have an approved equipment budget for the 10-year planning horizon. The most recent comprehensive spending review set the Department's budget for the financial years 2008 to 2011 and departmental expenditure plans after 2010-11 have not yet been agreed. The Department does however have a 10-year Equipment Plan which is used for internal
planning purposes only. As a general rule we do not currently comment on the plan as it is based upon internal planning assumptions which are inevitably subject to a significant amount of variation, and their availability could prejudice our commercial interests. In the future, as part of implementing the Bernard Gray recommendations we plan to provide an annual statement of the affordability of the programme against the defence budget.
Expenditure on the 10-year Equipment programme is published in the UK Defence Statistics 2009, Chapter 1-Finance, Table 1.4 and UK Defence Statistics 2002, Chapter 1, Table 1.7.
The UK Defence Statistics 2009, Chapter 1-Finance, Table 1.4 explains the omission of figures for 2001-02 and 2002-03.
Departmental Information and Communications Technology
Adam Afriyie: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence on what pay band his Department's Chief Information Officer (CIO) is employed; whether the CIO is employed on a fixed-term or permanent contract; and what the size is of the budget for which the CIO is responsible in the period 2009-10. [307568]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: The Department's chief information officer (CIO) is employed at the senior civil service pay band 2 level, on a permanent contract. The CIO budget is £86.5 million, a significant proportion of which (£55 million) is allocated for spectrum usage charges paid to Ofcom for the frequency bands assigned to MOD.
Departmental Official Cars
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what estimate he has made of the cost to his Department of providing official cars for the use of (a) Ministers and (b) officials in the last 12 months. [301171]
Mr. Kevan Jones: The Government Car and Despatch Agency is responsible for providing the official car for use by the Secretary of State. Its cost was included in a ministerial statement on the Cost of Ministerial Cars for 2008-09 by my hon. Friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport, the hon. Member for Gillingham (Paul Clark) on 16 July 2009, Official Report, columns 79-80WS. The Secretary of State has a car provided as part of the security necessary for the post holder.
The figures for SCS have been published on the MOD website at:
Departmental Publications
Derek Wyatt: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence when he expects to publish his Department's review of the work undertaken by the Royal Fleet Auxiliary; and if he will make a statement. [307745]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: This review is at an early stage. Progress updates will be provided twice a year alongside the Budget and pre-Budget reports.
Departmental Sick Leave
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many days of sickness absence were taken by staff in his Department and its agencies in each of the last 12 months for which figures are available; and what the cost to his Department was of such absence. [305551]
Mr. Kevan Jones: The information is not held in the format requested. MOD sickness figures are published in annual report available in the Library of House and quarterly on the MOD website at the following link:
Departmental Standards
Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence when he expects to publish his Department's Autumn Performance Report. [307356]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: The Department's Autumn Performance Report was published on 8 December. It can be found at the following link:
Departmental Training
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how much (a) his Department and (b) its agencies spent on away days in the last 12 months; and what the (i) subject and (ii) location of each away day was. [306755]
Mr. Kevan Jones: MOD is dedicated to developing its staff and provides training and development opportunities to help employees realise their full potential and support the achievement of business objectives. Away days can be a vital part of that process.
Information on away days attended by civil servants is not held centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost. However, the organisation of meetings outside the Department's buildings is based on sound planning and adheres to our policies on propriety and value for money where accommodation costs and other charges are involved.
Mr. Graham Stuart: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many (a) away days and (b) conferences that took place outside his Department's building attended by civil servants in his Department there have been since 2005; and what the cost was of each. [307520]
Mr. Kevan Jones: MOD is dedicated to developing its staff and provides training and development opportunities to help employees realise their full potential and support the achievement of business objectives. Away days and conferences can be a vital part of that process.
Information on away days and conferences attended by civil servants is not held centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost. However, the organisation of meetings outside the Department's buildings is based on sound planning and adheres to our policies on propriety and value for money where accommodation costs and other charges are involved.
Efficiency Savings
Linda Gilroy: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what efficiency savings have been achieved by his Department in each of the last 10 years; and how much of those savings has been spent on defence. [307406]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: Efficiency commitments for financial years 1998-09 to 2001-02 were set out in the 1997 Strategic Defence Review. Further efficiency or value for money targets were set in each subsequent spending review. The way in which savings were measured varied over the period, and so direct comparisons between spending reviews is not possible.
Savings throughout the period were either used to relieve cost pressures or to allow more to be spent on Defence priorities.
| Comprehensive spending r eview period 1998-99 to 2001-02 | |
| Cumulative savings (cash and resource, £ million) | |
2002 spending r eview efficiency programme 2002-03 to 2005-06
The MOD's spending review 2002 included a target of year-on-year output efficiency gains of 2.5 per cent. from 2002-03 to 2005-06. No overall financial target was set, as savings were measured as the weighted average of performance against a set of process-related supported targets. MOD achieved the overall target of 10 per cent. savings, realised by several specific major change programmes.
| Spending review 2004 for the period 2004-05 to 2006-07-'Gershon' efficiency programme | |
| Cumulative annual savings (£ million) against April 2004 baseline | |
| Comprehensive review period 2007-08 to 2010-11-value for money programme | |
| Annual savings (£ million) against April 2008 baseline | |
Further information on all these savings, including details on how they were measured, can be found in MOD's Annual Report and Accounts, which can be found at the following link:
Electronic Warfare
Mark Pritchard: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will require his Department to put in place sufficient resilience policy and practical measures to prevent cyber-attacks on the bases it operates. [303797]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: The Ministry of Defence has technical and procedural measures in place to protect it from, and mitigate, the impact of cyber attacks, as it does other threats and risks. The MOD conducts exercises to test these measures both internally, and with other Government agencies and our allies. Technical and procedural measures are constantly reviewed to reflect the dynamic nature of the threats. We do not comment on the detail of such protective measures in order not to provide information that could be exploited by a potential attacker.
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |