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7 Apr 2010 : Column 1368W—continued
Armed Forces: Rescue Services
Nick Harvey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether he expects to sign (a) a contract and (b) any other agreement with the preferred bidder for the provision of search and rescue helicopter services from 2012 before the Dissolution of Parliament. [325816]
Mr. Quentin Davies: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave him on 22 March 2010, Official Report, column 16W.
Army: Allergies
Mr. Paice: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence with reference to the applications guidelines of the Armed Forces Careers Office, Form 5, June 2007, how many people have been refused entry into the Army on the grounds of an allergic disorder in each of the last five years; and how many such refusals were the subject of an appeal supported by medical evidence. [325762]
Mr. Kevan Jones: Information on the number of individuals who have been refused entry to the British Army on the grounds of an allergic disorder is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
However, I can confirm that the Army recruiting and training division headquarters have considered 21 allergy-related appeals against non-selection over the last five years. Of these appeals, four were successful, two were withdrawn and 15 were unsuccessful.
Chinook Helicopters
Mr. Gerald Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will set out the details of the contract he has signed with Boeing in respect of the acquisition of additional Chinook helicopters; and whether (a) the contract will provide for the provision of the Julius cockpit design and (b) the helicopters will be acquired under the US foreign military sales. [325790]
Mr. Quentin Davies: Long-lead engineering work and acquisition of long-lead manufacturing components will be undertaken under the contract signed with Boeing on 23 March 2010. This work is necessary to protect the critical path to delivery of initial aircraft during the course of 2012 and 2013.
No final decision has yet been made on the cockpit configuration, nor on the procurement route, although if the Julius cockpit solution is selected this would not be under a US foreign military sale. I expect the Main Gate investment decision to be taken very shortly.
Departmental Disclosure of Information
Mr. Hands: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what restrictions there are on his Department's officials regarding the disclosure of information on future defence policy matters; and if he will make a statement. [324524]
Mr. Kevan Jones [holding answer 29 March 2010]: MOD officials may disclose official information only in accordance with current rules and procedures including, in the case of civil servants, the Civil Service Code and in compliance with the Official Secrets Acts, the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
Departmental Publications
Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will place in the Library a copy of the most recent Armed Forces Families Continuous Attitude survey. [325550]
Mr. Kevan Jones: Each service conducts a Families Continuous Attitude survey. The aim is to assess and monitor the attitude of serving personnel's spouses in key areas such as housing, child care, communication and welfare. The results obtained help to formulate strategic policy and identify specific trends, such as quality of service families' accommodation or the effectiveness of MODern Housing.
The most recent reports from the Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force will be placed in the Library of the House.
Departmental Temporary Employment
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence pursuant to the answer of 8 March 2010, Official Report, column 22-3W, on departmental temporary employment, what the total amount spent on employing temporary staff was in (a) each of the last three years and (b) 2009-10 to date. [324328]
Mr. Kevan Jones: Manpower substitutes are only engaged to fill funded posts until permanent recruitment can be completed or where the posts cannot be filled by other means. They are particularly important where units are closing or merging to enable permanent staff to be redeployed to secure posts while maintaining the role of the unit until closure, to ensure that services to the front line or other critical areas do not suffer gaps while permanent recruitment takes place or to temporarily fill specialist posts where the gap is caused by the individual being forward deployed.
While a great deal of work is being undertaken to increase the information available on the amount of money spent across the Ministry of Defence on manpower substitutes, this work is still ongoing and will improve further as the People Pay and Pensions Agency assumes more responsibility for delivering manpower substitution services for more categories of temporary staff. Consequently, the information requested is not held centrally and can be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Electronic Warfare
Mr. Swire: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what recent assessment he has made of the feasibility of strengthening military systems against electromagnetic attacks; and what estimate he has made of the cost of undertaking such work. [323136]
Bill Rammell: It would not be in the interests of national security to provide information about specific vulnerabilities, assessments or protective measures relating to electromagnetic attack.
Mr. Jenkin: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what assessment he has made of the effects on the critical infrastructure of his Department of an electromagnetic pulse strike caused (a) deliberately and (b) through solar activity. [321755]
Bill Rammell: Information about specific vulnerabilities, assessments or protective measures relating to electromagnetic pulse strike is being withheld for the purpose of safeguarding national security.
Members: Correspondence
Willie Rennie: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence pursuant to the answer of 29 January 2010, Official Report, column 1117W, on armed forces: housing, when he plans to write to the hon. Member for Dunfermline and West Fife. [325678]
Mr. Kevan Jones: I wrote to the hon. Member on 29 March 2010.
Snow and Ice
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many members of his Department have taken authorised days of absence owing to severe weather in 2010. [322623]
Mr. Kevan Jones: The information on the number of members in the Ministry of Defence who have taken authorised days of absence owing to severe weather in 2010 is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
War Pensions
Andrew Selous: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what plans he has for the future provision of services to war pensioners; whether he plans to close any war pensions offices; and if he will make a statement. [325697]
Mr. Kevan Jones: The Veterans Welfare Service (VWS) is part of the Service Personnel and Veterans Agency (SPVA) and provides one to one support, via telephone and home visits, to veterans throughout the UK and Ireland. Advice can be offered on many issues but the most common are war pension/compensation entitlement and applications, housing, benefits, employment and personal welfare.
The VWS has been reorganised into five regional centres each providing one to one telephone advice. This has improved customer service and efficiency, without reducing the capacity to handle cases. All the welfare managers who conduct home visits have been retained.
Veterans organisations were advised of the change and War Pensions Committee chairmen formally gave their backing.
Weapons: Transport
Linda Gilroy: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what estimate he has made of the (a) transport cost in respect of and (b) carbon emissions arising from (i) the arrangements for supply of armaments under his Department's pilot scheme and (ii) the transition to direct delivery of such armaments. [325584]
Mr. Quentin Davies [holding answer 6 April 2010]: The additional transport costs of the pilot scheme to assess the feasibility of direct delivery of armaments to Ministry of Defence depots to supply Royal Naval vessels is assessed as small in terms of the overall savings achievable, equating to around two vehicles per week.
No estimate has yet been made of the change in carbon emissions which might result from the pilot scheme, or the overall implementation of the improvement programme.
Justice
Croydon
Mr. Pelling: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will set out, with statistical evidence relating as closely as possible to Croydon Central constituency, the effects on that constituency of his Department's policies since 2005. [325588]
Mr. Wills: The Ministry of Justice's work spans criminal, civil and family justice, democracy, rights and the constitution. Every year around nine million people use, our services in 900 locations across the United Kingdom, including 650 courts and tribunals and 139 prisons in England and Wales.
The range of the Department's policies and actions is wide and the statistical information relating to it is not normally collected on a constituency basis. Consequently, some of the information requested in the question cannot be provided in the form requested except at a disproportionate cost.
Although data on sentencing for the period are not available for the constituency of Croydon, Central, they are available for London. These show the total number of offenders sentenced annually was 216,107 in 2005 and 242,429 in 2008, the latest period for which such information is available.
The number of offences brought to justice for London increased from 182,350 for the 12 months ending 31 March 2006 to 230,202 (provisional figures) for the 12 months ending 31 March 2009.
With regard to prosecutions, data are not available for the constituency of Croydon, Central. However, the total number of defendants proceeded against at magistrates courts by the Metropolitan Police was 261,617 in 2005, compared to 279,581 in 2008.
The latest data, which cover reoffending in the period 1 October 2008 to 30 September 2009, showed that the three month reoffending rate for offenders on the probation caseload in Croydon was 9.49 per cent. After controlling for changes in the characteristics of offenders on the probation caseload, there was an increase in reoffending of 3.12 per cent. compared to the 2007-08 baseline. Data are not available prior to 2007 on this basis.
The number of persons commencing court order supervision by the Probation Service in London was 18,931 in 2005 and 23,787 in 2008.
154,616 civil non-family proceedings were started in the county courts of London Civil and Family HMCS area in 2009, compared to 175,889 in 2005. There were also 15,437 private law applications and 886 public law applications made in the county or High Courts of this HMCS area in 2008-09, compared to 14,540 and 1,207 respectively in 2005-06.
In addition, at a national level:
Local communities are being better engaged in criminal justice-by giving them a say in the types of Community Payback projects offenders carry out and allowing them to see justice being done, for example through the use of high visibility jackets. Offenders have now worked more than 14 million hours, with an estimated value to the taxpayer of over £80 million.
Major constitutional reforms have been delivered, including devolution, the Human Rights Act, Freedom of Information, Lords Reform, and a new Supreme Court for the UK.
House of Commons Commission
Charlie Whelan
Mr. Dunne: To ask the hon. Member for North Devon, representing the House of Commons Commission pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Ruislip-Northwood (Mr. Hurd) of 24 March 2010, Official Report, column 295W, on Charlie Whelan, what type of pass Mr. Whelan holds; when it was issued; and who the sponsor is of the pass. [325342]
Nick Harvey: Mr. Whelan holds a temporary pass (light blue) issued in June 2009. It is sponsored by the parliamentary Labour party from within an agreed allocation.
Culture, Media and Sport
BBC
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what meetings he has had with the BBC in each of the last two years; what the agenda was of each such meeting; who attended each such meeting; if he will place in the Library a copy of the minutes of each such meeting; and if he will make a statement. [325170]
Mr. Bradshaw: Details of meetings with outside groups that I have held since I became Secretary of State on 5 June 2009 are regularly published on my Department's website. I have held the following meetings with representatives of the BBC:
| Reason for meeting | |
Notes of meetings with outside groups are not published as a matter of course.
Departmental Buildings
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much his Department and its agency have spent on rooms for staff leisure in each of the last five years. [324435]
Mr. Bradshaw: Nothing has been spent.
Departmental Marketing
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much his Department and its agencies spent on promotional items carrying the Department's branding and logo in the last five years; and what such items were. [324722]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The Department for Culture, Media and Sport and its agency, the Royal Parks, has not spent any money on promotional items carrying the Department's branding logo in the last five years.
Opposition
Mr. Hurd: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (1) whether his Department has undertaken costings of the policies of the (a) Conservative Party and (b) Liberal Democrat Party at the request of Ministers or special advisers in the last 36 months; [324247]
(2) whether his Department has undertaken costings of the policies of (a) the Conservative Party and (b) the Liberal Democrat Party at the request of Ministers or special advisers in the last 36 months. [324401]
Mr. Bradshaw: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to him by my right hon. Friend the Exchequer Secretary, on 30 March 2010, Official Report, column 1913W.
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