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Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
Lord Vivian asked Her Majesty's Government:
- When the joint services unmanned aerial vehicle study will be completed.[HL1472]
Lord Bach: An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) study into the Ministry of Defence's management requirements for the introduction into service of UAVs has recently been completed and its findings are currently being considered.
Lord Vivian asked Her Majesty's Government:
- How many unmanned aerial vehicle flights were flown and how many were lost during Exercise Saif Sareea II.[HL1473]
Lord Bach: There were 21 unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) flights during Exercise Saif Sareea II. One UAV flight ended before its mission was fully completed. The vehicle was recovered and the reasons for its apparent failure are being investigated.
Defence Exercises: Cancellation
Lord Vivian asked Her Majesty's Government:
- How many training excursions for the Armed Forces have been cancelled in 2000 and 2001.[HL1474]
Lord Bach: Seventy-eight training exercises originally listed in the Ministry of Defence's Defence Exercise Programme (which lists some 350 exercises each year) and in the exercise programmes of the front line commands, the Permanent Joint HQ and the Defence Logistic Organisation HQ have been cancelled in 2000 and 2001. The number of unit-organised exercises which have been cancelled is not held centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Defence Exercises from Gibraltar
Lord Vivian asked Her Majesty's Government:
- How many training exercises have been carried out for the Armed Forces in and from Gibraltar during the last three years.[HL1477]
Lord Bach: About 300 training exercises have been carried out by the UK Armed Forces in and from Gibraltar during the last three years.
Kosovo: UK Civilian Policing
Lord Dubs asked Her Majesty's Government:
- What is the level of the United Kingdom's civilian policing commitment to the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK).[HL1609]
The Minister for Trade (Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean) : The UK currently contributes 140 civilian police officers, mainly on secondment from the Police Service for Northern Ireland and the Ministry of Defence Police, to UNMIK's international civilian police force. These officers are engaged in both
operational duties to maintain civil law and order in Kosovo and in duties related to the work of UNMIK's Criminal Investigation Unit in Pristina. UNMIK police officers, including those seconded from the UK, played a key role in ensuring that the Kosovo elections on 17 November were conducted peacefully.On 6 December the UK will deploy 18 recently retired British police officers to Kosovo. The secondment of recently retired British police officers is a new initiative and will increase our commitment in Kosovo to 158 officers. This figure excludes Mr Chris Albiston, the Police Commissioner in Kosovo, who is a serving assistant chief constable on secondment from the Police Service for Northern Ireland. If this initial deployment of retired police officers proves successful, there might be scope for the deployment of increased numbers of retired policemen to peacekeeping duties with the UN in Kosovo and elsewhere.
Law Officers' Departments DEL
Lord Hogg of Cumbernauld asked Her Majesty's Government:
- Whether there are any plans to change the Law Officers' departments departmental expenditure limit and administration costs limits for 2001–02.[HL1647]
The Attorney-General (Lord Goldsmith): Subject to parliamentary approval of the necessary Supplementary Estimates, the Attorney-General's departments DEL will be increased by £25,375,000 from £426,088,000 to £451,463,000 and the administration costs limits will be increased by £22,476,000 from £299,627,000 to £322,103,000. Within the DEL change, the impact on resources and capital are set out in the following table:
| Resources | Capital
| Change | New DEL | Of Which Voted | Non-voted | Change | New DEL | Of Which Voted | Non-voted
| |
| £22,476,000 | £429,814,000 | £419,258,000 | £10,556,000 | £2,899,000 | £21,649,000 | £21,649,000 | — |
The Crown Prosecution Service DEL will be increased by £23,797,000 from £391,096,000 to £414,893,000 and the administration costs limit will be increased by £21,747,000 from £275,227,000 to £296,974,000. The increase in the resource element of the DEL arises from speeding up the reform of the CPS to allow it to contribute fully to criminal justice targets and implementation of Section 37 of the Vehicles (Crime) Reduction Act 2001. The decrease results from a transfer of £83,000 for work taken over by the Insolvency Service under Section 218, Insolvency Act 1986. The change in the capital element of the DEL arises from an increase of £1,750,000 to fund the introduction of joint CPS/police criminal justice and trial units and £300,000 to fund the provision of digital certificates for the secure transmission of case information.
HM Procurator General and Treasury Solicitor's Department DEL will be increased by £1,578,000 from £14,167,000 to £15,745,000 and the administration costs limits will be increased by £729,000 from £9,900,000 to £10,629,000. The increase in administration costs is to facilitate action being taken by the Treasury Solicitor's department as part of its Modernising Government Action Plan. The increase in capital expenditure of £849,000 will be used to fund continued expansion of the department's IT systems.
The increases will be partly offset by an allocation of £22,000,000 from the criminal justice system reserve, an allocation of £250,000 from the Civil Service Modernisation Fund, a transfer of £105,000 from the Home Office, an allocation of £300,000 from the Capital Modernisation Fund, the drawn-down of £1,750,000 of the Attorney-General's departments
The remainder of the expenditure will be charged to the reserve and will not, therefore, add to the planned total of public expenditure.
Baroness Byford asked Her Majesty's Government:
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord Whitty): It is not possible to provide a meaningful answer in the form requested by the noble Baroness. At the height of the foot and mouth outbreak some 5,000 staff, including casual staff and those from other government departments, were employed in dealing with it. (This figure excludes personnel from the Armed Forces.) The numbers and composition of this workforce varied greatly over the months of the outbreak and cannot be readily broken down to identify the total contribution by staff who would otherwise have been engaged, wholly or partly, in environmental regulatory work. The development and implementation of the environmental regulatory framework involves input from a large number of divisions across DEFRA, as well as some of its associated non-departmental public bodies, and it would be disproportionately expensive to estimate working hours lost to this during the foot and mouth outbreak. Such an estimate to be meaningful would have to include, as well as staff movements, re-prioritising of work due to the demands of foot and mouth.
An assessment of the impact of foot and mouth disease on the progress of the department's environmental regulation work would also need to include the effects of the outbreak upon the farming industry. The preoccupation of the industry itself with fighting the disease and the effects on the viability of some farm businesses meant that it would have been both insensitive and unproductive to continue consulting the industry on all environmental proposals in the pipeline and work was accordingly slowed down.
Lord Hylton asked Her Majesty's Government:
Lord Whitty: Each government department is responsible for its own purchasing decisions but they are required to obtain value for money for all procurements. This is usually obtained through open competition. Where the value of the contract exceeds certain thresholds, government purchasing procedures are regulated by statutory instruments that implement EC public procurement directives. These regulations ensure that public contracting authorities are transparent about their requirements and do not discriminate unfairly against suppliers of any nationality when selecting those to be invited to tender. Therefore, British woodland owners and timber-processors should have the opportunity to quote for relevant UK and foreign government contracts.
Further to the answer by Lord Whitty on 6 November (HL Deb, col. 131), whether they will clarify the number of Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs personnel who were transferred from work on the environmental regulatory framework to help with the foot and mouth outbreak and, of these, how many have not subsequently returned.[HL1256]
Whether they will ensure that British woodland owners and timber-processors are able to quote for all government and statutory contracts for which their products can be used.[HL1457]
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