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27 Mar 2002 : Column WA53

Baroness Howe of Idlicote asked Her Majesty's Government:

    What is the number of unpaid public appointments made by each government department; and what percentages of those appointees are male and female.[HL3433]

Lord Macdonald of Tradeston: The latest edition of the annual Cabinet Office publication Public Bodies 2001 was published on 14 February 2002. The publication gives summary details of the public bodies each government department sponsors. This includes the remuneration and gender of all appointees, whether the appointment is made by Ministers or on some other basis. Copies are in the Library of the House.

Information extracted from this publication is set out in the following table form.

People in posts attracting no remuneration

DepartmentMaleFemaleTotal% Male% Female
Cabinet Office30306050.050.0
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster 1128219457.742.3
COI Communications 741163.636.4
DEFRA 967791,04692.47.6
Department for Education and Skills 792810773.826.2
Department for International Development 34165068.032.0
Department of Culture, Media and Sport 39620660265.834.2
Department of Health 8958481,74351.348.7
Department of Trade and Industry 40011051078.421.6
DTLR 1,4424431,88576.523.5
DWP 24204454.545.5
FCO 883212073.326.7
FSA 731070.030.0
Home Office 1,3161,0132,32956.543.5
Lord Chancellor's Department 3,5481,2534,80173.926.1
MoD 2427131377.322.7
Oftel 34104477.322.7
OFWAT 735512857.043.0
ORR 782510375.724.3
Royal Mint 931275.025.0
Scotland Office 9311,2332,16443.057.0
Grand Total 10,5705,45216,02266.034.0

Reforming the Public Services Principles into Practice: Printing and Distribution

Lord Hayhoe asked Her Majesty's Government:

    How many copies of Reforming the public services Principles into practice were printed, and at what cost; and[HL3263]

    How many copies of Reforming the public services Principles into practice were distributed to those employed in public services; what the criteria was for this distribution list; and at what cost were they distributed.[HL3264]

27 Mar 2002 : Column WA54

Lord Macdonald of Tradeston: Eleven thousand copies of the pamphlet have been printed at a cost of £21,000. The initial distribution encompassed senior managers in education, health, transport and law and order. In addition, copies have also been distributed to Parliament, Ministers and officials and in response to requests from the public. Over the coming months copies will be distributed to senior public service managers at a wide variety of seminars, conferences and other events. The cost of distribution to date is £19,000.

Service Personnel: Medical Care

Lord Vivian asked Her Majesty's Government:

    How many personnel in each armed service have been waiting for medical consultations; and how many have been waiting for medical operations, showing the number of months they have been waiting.[HL3099]

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence (Lord Bach): Service patients are mainly treated in Defence Secondary Care Agency (DSCA) administered Ministry of Defence hospital units (MDHUs) situated in NHS trusts, in other NHS hospitals as NHS patients, or in DSCA directly managed units (DMUs) in the United Kingdom and overseas. Secondary care in Northern Ireland is administered by the Army. The British Forces Germany Health Service provides secondary care for service personnel in Germany, where there are generally no waiting lists.

The MoD only maintains central records on the overall number of Armed Forces patients awaiting a first out-patient appointment or in-patient treatment (including daycase surgery) at MDHUs. MDHU waiting list information as at 30 September 2001, the last date for which information is available, is provided in the following tables. This excludes outpatient information in respect of MDHU Portsmouth due to validation of patient information at that time.

Outpatients

Waiting time
0–13 weeks13+ weeksTotal Waiting
Number of Service patients waiting(5)1,7343562,090

(5) Number of patients waiting at four MDHUs (Peterborough, Frimley Park, Derriford and Northallerton).


Inpatients

Waiting time
0–3 months3–6 months6+ monthsTotal Waiting
Number of Service patients waiting(5)1,3875495092,448

(6) Number of patients waiting at all five MDHUs (Portsmouth, Peterborough, Frimley Park, Derriford and Northallerton).


27 Mar 2002 : Column WA55

Nicosia Flight Information Region:Search and Rescue Responsibility

Lord Kilclooney asked Her Majesty's Government:

    How long the United Kingdom had responsibility for search and rescue services within the Nicosia Flight Information Region; whether responsibility was confirmed in the 1960 Cyprus Treaties; when it was decided to transfer this responsibility to the Greek Cypriot Government; what has been the reaction of the Turkish Cypriot administration; and whether this decision will facilitate the present talks between Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders.[HL3230]

Lord Bach: The United Kingdom has provided search and rescue services in the Nicosia FIR since 1960. Our only treaty obligation in this regard is set out in Annex B, Part V, Section 9 of the 1960 Treaty of Establishment, which says that:


    "In so far as the services established for their own use make this possible, the United Kingdom authorities shall make available search and rescue facilities for all civil aircraft within the flight information region administered from Nicosia."

In recent years the Republic of Cyprus has established its own Rescue Co-ordination Centre (RCC) at Larnaca and introduced capable search and rescue helicopters. They are now much less reliant on UK assistance and we understand that within the last year thay have notified relevant aviation and maritime organisations that RCC Larnaca is the lead search and rescue centre for the Nicosia FIR. The UK continues to meet its treaty commitment by making available the Wessex helicopters of 84 Squadron RAF and the RCC Episkopi to assist as required in search and rescue operations in the Nicosia FIR.

SAR is a humanitarian matter. As such it should have no read-across to the ongoing settlement negotiations.

Foreign Holdings of Military Equipment

Lord Vivian asked Her Majesty's Government:

    What is the number of medium and heavy tanks by type in Russia, China, North Korea, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Europe and the United States.[HL3275]

Lord Bach: Government assessments of foreign holdings of military equipment are classified. A widely accepted, non-official reference is The Military Balance 2000–2001, a copy of which is in the Library of the House. In addition, the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms contains details of tank holdings for those nations who have provided input: it is available at http://disarmament.un.org/UN–REGISTER.nsf.

27 Mar 2002 : Column WA56

Brigade and Battle Group Exercises

Lord Vivian asked Her Majesty's Government:

    Whether they have any plans to cut any brigade and battle group level exercises in 2002–03; if there are plans to reduce the number of exercises, which of these exercises will be withdrawn from the training programme; and for what reason.[HL3278]

Lord Bach: We have yet to finalise our plans for brigade and battle group exercises for 2002–03, but no direction has been given to cancel any exercises at this time.

Service Personnel: Criminal Injuries Compensation (Overseas) Scheme

Lord Morris of Manchester asked Her Majesty's Government:

    What further consideration they are giving to the issue of compensation for ex-servicemen and women, in particular to those who fall foul of the rules of the criminal injuries compensation (overseas) scheme, as exemplified by the case of Sergeant Trevor Walker, Royal Engineers, who lost a leg while serving on peacekeeping duties in Bosnia and has been denied compensation for this injury under current rules.[HL3358]

Lord Bach: There are no plans to amend the criminal injuries compensation (overseas) (CIC(O)) scheme rules. This scheme exists to provide compensation for sevice personnel injured as a result of a criminal act while serving overseas. The CIC(O)'s provisions mirror those of the criminal injuries compensation schemes of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and thus ensure that service personnel serving abroad are placed in the same position as those serving in the United Kingdom.

Sergeant Trevor Walker's injuries were the result of military activity by warring factions in Bosnia. Since this was not a "criminal act" within the terms of the CIC(O) scheme, he was not eligible for compensation under the scheme. This judgment has been upheld by the Divisional Court, Court of Appeal and the House of Lords. In circumstances such as Sergeant Walker's, compensation would normally be through the payment of benefits for attributable injury under the war pension scheme (WPS) and the armed forces pension scheme (AFPS) on medical discharge. Sergeant Walker currently remains in service. He will be entitled to receive a war pension on retirement. He will also receive compensation under the AFPS if he is subsequently medically discharged as a result of his injury.

The Ministry of Defence has been conducting a review of compensation arrangements for service personnel and the proposals for a new compensation scheme (to replace the WPS and attributable benefits

27 Mar 2002 : Column WA57

under the AFPS) to include compensation for service personnel injured as a result of terrorism or warlike activities, even if they remain in service. It is proposed that service personnel injured on or after the date of the new scheme's introduction would be covered by the new arrangements. Injuries which pre-date the new scheme's introduction would be covered by current compensation arrangements.


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