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26 Jan 2010 : Column 794W—continued

An additional seven houses in the Midlothian council LAA are in the process of being sold to a registered social landlord.

16 houses in the Moray council LAA have also been leased to Moray council to provide housing for families affected by severe flooding which took place last year.

Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many and what percentage of (a) single living accommodation and (b) service family accommodation units are in each grade in each region of the UK. [312716]

Mr. Kevan Jones: The condition survey of service family accommodation (SFA) properties in England and Wales is due to be completed by April 2010. Of those properties surveyed, at 31 December 2009 the following are at each Standard for Condition (SfC):

	S1fC		S2fC		S3fC		S4fC
Zone	Number	Percentage	Number	Percentage	Number	Percentage	Number	Percentage
North	2,203	55.5	1,665	42.0	83	2.0	17	0.4
West (including Wales)	1,453	49.8	1,392	47.7	72	2.5	1	<0.1
East	2,299	48.2	2,339	49.0	127	2.6	6	0.1
South East	2,926	35.7	4,959	60.5	229	2.8	88	1.1
South West	2,503	29.8	5,605	66.8	240	2.8	40	0.5
London	1,334	24.7	3,729	69.1	283	5.2	52	1.0
Totals	12,718	37.8	19,689	58.5	1,034	3.1	204	0.6

Similar surveys of SFA in Scotland and Northern Ireland will be carried out in due course.

Single living accommodation (SLA) is assessed for its Grade for Charge, which sets the level of charges to be paid by occupants. This grade reflects the accommodation's proximity to local facilities like train stations or post offices; local disturbances like aircraft noise as well as the condition of the property. As at December 2008, the latest date for which data are available, UK SLA was at the following grade:

	Grade 1		Grade 2		Grade 3		Grade 4
Government office region	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%
East Midlands	1,488	23	809	12	265	4	3,975	61
East of England	3,989	32	2,680	22	2,337	19	3,289	27
London	129	3	1,147	29	654	16	2,066	52
North East	417	16	159	6	1,423	55	611	23
North West	101	8	417	32	737	56	57	4
South East	7,221	19	4,813	12	4,239	11	22,382	58
South West	8,764	29	3,164	10	4,230	14	14,001	46
West Midlands	1,236	19	1,129	17	1,907	29	2,216	34
Yorkshire and the Humber	3,589	31	742	6	2,240	19	5,040	43
Scotland	2,443	33	1,527	21	2,096	28	1,335	18
Northern Ireland	1,445	36	971	24	900	22	717	18
Wales	427	15	489	17	76	3	1,805	65
Grand total	31,249	24.4	18,047	14.1	21,104	16.5	57,494	45.0

Willie Rennie: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence which 50 substitute (a) service family and (b) single living accommodation properties in Scotland had the highest rent in the last 12 months. [312720]

Mr. Kevan Jones [holding answer 25 January 2010]: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave him on 20 January 2010, Official Report, columns 348-50W.

26 Jan 2010 : Column 795W

Chinook Helicopters

Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence pursuant to the written ministerial statement of 15 December 2009, Official Report, columns 99-100WS, on future rotary wing strategy, (1) when he expects to sign contracts for the 22 additional Chinook helicopters; [313259]

(2) whether he expects to order the additional 22 Chinook helicopters through (a) foreign military sales orders with the US administration, (b) direct commercial purchase from Boeing Company and (c) Finmeccanica in Italy; [313289]

(3) whether the additional 22 Chinook helicopters will be fitted with the Julius standard flight deck. [313290]

Mr. Bob Ainsworth: Work is ongoing on the acquisition of the 22 new Chinook helicopters. It is anticipated that the contract covering preliminary development work and long-lead items for the initial aircraft deliveries will be placed in the coming months once the associated formal investment business case has been approved. The Procurement Strategy, including the procurement route, will be considered as part of the formal investment case. No decision has yet been taken on the cockpit flight deck. The configuration of the aircraft, including the cockpit flight deck, will be determined as part of the initial development work.

Departmental Manpower

Mr. Blunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many civilian staff of his Department were in its redeployment pool on 1 (a) January, (b) April, (c) July and (d) October 2009. [306720]

Mr. Bob Ainsworth: The redeployment pool is used to give redeployment priority to employees who are due to become surplus or who have become surplus due to reorganisation or restructuring. The population of the redeployment pool changes daily as surplus staff find new posts and others give notice that they are due to become surplus. As a snap shot, the numbers in the redeployment pool on the dates specified are provided as follows.

	Number
1 January 2009	937
1 April 2009	709
1 July 2009	682
1 October 2009	734

Staff in the redeployment pool continue to carry out work in the Department while they seek an alternative permanent appointment.

Departmental Mobile Phones

Mr. Graham Stuart: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many (a) mobile telephones and (b) BlackBerrys have been provided to (i) Ministers and (ii) special advisers in his Department in 2009-10 to date; and at what cost to the public purse. [313173]

26 Jan 2010 : Column 796W

Mr. Bob Ainsworth: In financial year 2009-10 to date, Ministers have been provided with one mobile phone at a cost of £155, and special advisers with one BlackBerry at a cost of £50. All expenditure is in line with the principles of Managing Public Money and the Treasury handbook on Regularity and Propriety.

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