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30 Mar 2010 : Column 862W—continued

Armed Forces: Merseyside

Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence pursuant to the answer of 22 March 2010, Official Report, columns 9-10W, on armed forces: Merseyside, how many of the (a) 131,000 young people and (b) 25,000 adult volunteers are based in Merseyside. [325009]

Mr. Kevan Jones: The following table shows the number of cadets and adult volunteers that are members of the Ministry of Defence sponsored Cadet Forces in the boroughs of Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton, St. Helens and Wirral in March 2010.

	Adult volunteers	Cadets
Army Cadet Force	168	1,354
Sea Cadet Corps	268	808
Air Training Corps	270	1,049
Total	706	3,211

These figures include members of the Combined Cadet Forces.

Armed Forces: Rescue Services

Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence on (a) how many occasions and (b) for how long on each occasion search and rescue helicopters at RAF Lossiemouth have been unavailable in the last 12 months; and on what proportion of such occasions this was because of (i) aircrew shortages and (ii) technical problems. [321333]

30 Mar 2010 : Column 863W

Bill Rammell: Between 1 March 2009 and 28 February 2010 RAF Lossiemouth was unable to provide search and rescue (SAR) capability on 26 occasions due to crew shortages. All of these consisted of 12 hour night-time closures.

In the same period Lossiemouth SAR helicopters were unavailable on 147 occasions due to technical problems; these periods vary in length from a few minutes to several days. Details of each occasion and the length of time Lossiemouth was listed as being 'off-state' are shown in the following table.

The extended closure of Lossiemouth between 26 January and 1 February this year was because both helicopters required major repair work. If a helicopter becomes unavailable for any reason, then the Aeronautical Rescue Co-ordination Centre at RAF Kinloss liaises with other SAR providers to reduce the impact on available cover. This is primarily achieved by ensuring that when one SAR station is expected to be 'off-state' a neighbouring site is fully operational.

30 Mar 2010 : Column 864W

30 Mar 2010 : Column 865W

30 Mar 2010 : Column 866W

Date	Downtime (Hours and minutes)
March 2009
4-5	6.56
9	9
20	20
20	20
21	21
21-22	5.16
April 2009
7	0.36
8-9	09.10
25-26	13.32
28	1.37
28	0.51
May 2009
6	1.19
8-9	15.00
10	9.32
12-13	36.44
14	2.08
15	3.48
15	0.24
18	14.58
19	6.43
19	0.12
19	0.51
20	2.04
21	0.48
23-24	1.16
24	3.03
25	0.47
26-27	24.07
29-30	17.06
31	0.45
June 2009
1	3.13
3-4	24.44
8	3.11
11	0.27
11	2.10
12-13	7.51
14-15	2.37
16	3.53
17	3.57
18-19	7.41
19	5.29
19-20	27.52
22	0.54
29	0.07
29	1.19
July 2009
10	0.02
18-19	10.14
20	5.52
20-21	14.45
26	1.07
29	2.19
31	1.03
August 2009
6	1.03
8	3.14
12	2.52
12	1.37
12	2.48
13	4.18
15-16	6.47
19	3.27
21	0.08
21	2.01
24	3.43
September 2009
1	2.32
7	2.26
10-11	7.38
13	1.51
23-24	6.09
28	0.45
28	1.25
October 2009
4	3.22
8	3.00
21	3.08
22-23	20.33
25	0.01
26	1.04
27-30	97.13
31	1.31
November 2009
5	0.01
5	5.54
7-8	14.06
13	1.33
20	8.01
20-21	12.53
24-25	12.02
26	0.20
30	0.01
30	0.01
December 2009
1	3.32
2-3	14.04
3-5	47.18
5-6	10.08
6-7	14.32
7-8	28.49
10-11	25.18
14	5.12
14	6.42
14	0.29
19	1.59
29	6.08
29-30	2.34
30	3.42
January 2010
7	6.00
12	4.43
14	8.13
14	6.10
14-15	10.39
15	0.49
15	6.48
16	1.04
19	12.04
21-22	19.21
23	1.01
24	2.44
25	2.49
25	1.17
25	0.03
26 January to 1 February	154.09
February 2010
2	13.53
4	0.01
5	2.55
5-6	4.59
6-7	13.32
6-7	9.06
7	0.02
7	2.23
10-11	7.45
11-12	10.58
12-13	31.04
13	1.05
14	3.38
15	4.29
17-18	13.28
20	1.07
21	17.47
21-22	20.12
22	1.28
24-25	16.13
25	7.45
26	3.25
27	0.13
27	2.39
27	1.41
27	1.19
28	4.42
28	0.01
28	2.19

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