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29 Jan 2010 : Column 1114W—continued
Departmental Consultants
Julia Goldsworthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how much consultants employed by his Department and its agencies have been paid (a) in total and (b) in reimbursable expenses in each of the last 10 years. [313991]
Chris Bryant: Responsibility for procuring external consultants within the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) is devolved to individual FCO directorates, departments and overseas posts.
Annual expenditure on consultants is published each year in our annual departmental report, copies of which are available in the Library of the House and on our website. Actual consultancy expenditure in 2008-09 was £29.9 million rather then the estimated figure of £63.6 million noted in the 2008-09 departmental report. This included estimated costs of managed service delivery and other professional services, which are not classed as 'Consultancy' spend by the Office of Government Commerce.
These published figures include the costs of reimbursable expenses. To separate these out retrospectively would incur disproportionate cost.
Iraq: Oil
Mr. Donohoe: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what reports he has received on the quantity of oil exported from Iraq in each of the last 10 years. [314161]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: According to the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), average crude oil export figures for Iraq from 1999 to 2008 are as follows:
| Average rate of export (millions of barrels per day) | |
Figures for 2009 are not currently available from the OPEC website. However, data available from the Government of Iraq's Ministry of Oil website indicate that average oil export rates in 2009 were 1.9 million barrels of oil per day, available at
Overseas Residence: Crime
Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether the Spanish authorities seek payment from the Government in respect of the costs of imprisonment in Spain of British citizens awaiting trial. [314270]
Chris Bryant: No. The cost of detaining prisoners awaiting trial is the responsibility of the state in which the prisoner is detained.
Defence
Armed Forces: Bomb Disposal
Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence (1) whether his Department has purchased ADE-651 bomb detectors from ATSC; [314328]
(2) whether the ADE-651 bomb detector has been used to screen vehicles at any of his Department's establishments (a) in the UK and (b) overseas. [314329]
Mr. Quentin Davies: No ADE-651 bomb detectors have been purchased by the Ministry of Defence, and as such the ADE-651 has not been used where UK personnel control access to establishments either in the UK or overseas.
Armed Forces: Housing
Willie Rennie: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many families have been evicted from service family accommodation in each of the last 12 months. [314196]
Mr. Kevan Jones: Service Family Accommodation (SFA) is provided to accommodate entitled Service personnel and their families. When occupants cease to be entitled to SFA and do not vacate, the Department is required to take steps to recover possession of the property. In the first instance Defence Estates (DE) will write to the occupant advising that they are required to vacate the property within 93 days. DE will be as flexible as possible and will extend this so as to accommodate children's schooling and holidays or to allow occupants the maximum possible time to secure alternative accommodation arrangements.
The number of eviction orders applied for against occupants of SFA in 2009 is shown in the following table:
| Month | Number of eviction orders |
Willie Rennie: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many houses owned by his Department were rated as grade (a) 1, (b) 2, (c) 3 and (d) 4 in each of the last five years. [314197]
Mr. Kevan Jones: The majority of the 70,000 Service Family Accommodation (SFA) properties worldwide are leased rather than owned by the Department. SFA is graded for charge and by Standard for Condition (SfC), a detailed measure of the physical condition of a property.
For the latest number of UK properties at each SfC (as at December 2009) I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 26 January 2010, Official Report, column 794W to the hon. Member for Woodspring (Dr Fox).
The following number of UK SFA properties were at each SfC in each of the last five years:
| S1fC | S2fC | S3fC | S4fC | |
Like for like figures are not available for overseas SFA. However, as at October 2009 overseas properties were at the following SfC:
| SfC | Number of SFA Properties |
Willie Rennie: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence pursuant to the answer of 19 January 2010, Official Report, column 203W, on armed forces: housing, how many requests for repair call outs were made in respect of family housing. [314204]
Mr. Kevan Jones: I will write to the hon. Member.
AWE Aldermaston
Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what meetings he has had with representatives of the Atomic Weapons Establishment on the development of new facilities at Aldermaston in the last 12 months. [313383]
Mr. Quentin Davies: The Secretary of State for Defence visited the Atomic Weapons Establishment on 23 September 2009. I visited on 27 February and 9 November 2009. As part of these visits briefing was provided on a range of subjects, including developments on the ongoing capital facilities programme. Ministry of Defence officials maintain a constant dialogue with AWE plc and other stakeholders on these matters, providing advice to Ministers as appropriate.
Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how much his Department has spent on Atomic Weapons Establishment facilities at Aldermaston in each of the last five years. [313384]
Mr. Quentin Davies: The capital facilities expenditure figures for the two Atomic Weapons Establishment sites at Aldermaston and Burghfield are shown in the following table:
| Capital costs at outturn prices (£ million) | |
| (1 )Provisional. | |
Departmental Disclosure of Information
David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether (a) agencies and (b) non-departmental public bodies for which his Department is responsible sell information on a commercial basis to (i) companies or individuals in the private sector and (ii) other organisations. [313222]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: The Ministry of Defence and its agencies make suitable information available for free re-use under the Public Sector Information Click-Use Licence. The Department's Trading Funds are able, under their trading fund status, to charge for the services they provide in order to cover their costs, with both the Meteorological Office and UK Hydrographic Office licensing information for commercial re-use. Also, the museums for the Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force are registered charities classified as executive non-departmental public bodies and levy a charge for requests of photographic images, video material and copies of historical documents to commercial companies and individuals at commercial rates. Charitable or other not-for-profit organisations are either not charged or charged at cost.
Departmental ICT
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how much his Department has allocated for the (a) procurement, (b) maintenance, (c) compliance testing and (d) security of information technology systems in 2010-11. [313553]
Mr. Quentin Davies: Available resources for Defence expenditure are set during spending rounds. The most recent comprehensive spending review set the Department's budget for the financial years 2008-11.
Departmental expenditure plans for 2010-11 and beyond have not yet been agreed.
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how much his Department spent on information technology in the last three financial years; how much of this was spent on (a) software development and testing and (b) application including (i) staff training, (ii) the cost of new hardware and software and (iii) the cost of launching into the live environment. [313554]
Mr. Quentin Davies: The Department spent the following on information technology and telecommunications in the last three financial years:
| £ million | |
| Notes: 1. The MOD's Resource Account Codes do not split the costs between information technology and telecommunications. 2. These costs include telecommunication costs, for example line rental. 3. These figures relate to capital addition and operating cost charges. | |
The detailed breakdown requested could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Further information can be found in the Department's Annual Report at the following link:
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