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Lord Garden asked Her Majesty's Government:
What advice they have received from the United States Government over the withdrawal of funding for the development of the Rolls Royce-General Electric variant of the engine for the Joint Strike Fighter. [HL3240]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence (Lord Drayson): To date no advice has been received by the United Kingdom from the United States Government regarding the withdrawal of funding for the development of the Rolls Royce-General Electric variant engine for the Joint Strike Fighter. The UK Government are aware that the current DoD budget process is considering a wide range of measures. However, the DoD budget is in its early stages of approval and the outcome will not be known until later in the year.
Lord Garden asked Her Majesty's Government:
How much has been spent on the Joint Strike Fighter to the end of 2005; and how much of this is recoverable in the event of non-delivery of contracted capability. [HL3241]
Lord Drayson: Up to 31 December 2005 the United Kingdom has spent £700 million on the Joint Strike Fighter, of which none is recoverable in the event of non-delivery of contracted capability. The amount represents expenditure for the previous assessment phase and the current system development and demonstration phase, along with UK national work approved by the Ministry of Defence.
Lord Taylor of Warwick asked Her Majesty's Government:
Lord McKenzie of Luton: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician who has been asked to reply.
Letter from the National Statistician, Karen Dunnell, dated 17 January 2006
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about manufacturing jobs. (HL3239)
While statistics of jobs created or lost are not available explicitly, statistics from surveys enable comparisons to be made of net changes, in numbers of jobs, from year to year.
The available statistics show that the number of jobs in the UK manufacturing industry fell by 1.151 million from 4.514 million in June 1997 to 3.363 million in September 2005.
These estimates, as with any sample survey, are subject to a margin of uncertainty.
17 Jan 2006 : Column WA102
Lord Taylor of Warwick asked Her Majesty's Government:
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord Bach): The Milk Development Council (MDC) is an executive non-departmental public body funded by a levy paid by milk producers on all milk sold from their farms in Great Britain.
The table below shows the average number of employees over the past three financial years together with the present figures. The increase in staff numbers from 17 in 2002-03 to 51 to date is mainly due to the growth of the School Milk Project, which provides facilitators to encourage milk consumption in schools. The MDC now has 14 school milk facilitators, most of whom operate on a part-time basis. The work is also part-funded by dairy processing companies.
The rise in numbers of extension officers (field-based staff that help to implement the fruits of research and development work on-farm) has been driven by the need to gain better coverage of Great Britain.
The increase in numbers in office-based staff is a result of a move away from use of external consultants to recruitment of permanent staff in the relevant areas.
Present | Average | Average | Average | |
200405 | 200304 | 200203 | ||
Extension Officers | 8 | 6 | 6 | 4 |
School Milk Facilitators | 14 (11) | 14 (12) | 3 (2) | |
Other Staff | 29 (1) | 23 | 19 | 13 (1) |
Total | 51 (12) | 43 (12) | 28 (2) | 17 (l) |
Baroness Cox asked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they have decided not to proceed with plans to require foreign-born religious leaders who are applying for British citizenship to demonstrate knowledge of British history, culture and institutions; and, if so, for what reason. [HL3177]
The Minister of State, Home Office (Baroness Scotland of Asthal): I refer the noble Baroness to the Written Ministerial Statement, 19 December 2005, at col. WS 162 of Lords Hansard. All overseas nationals applying for British citizenship since 1 November 2005 have been required to demonstrate knowledge of life in the UK as well as English. These requirements will continue to apply to ministers of religion in the same way as they do to all other applicants.
17 Jan 2006 : Column WA103
Lord Marlesford asked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether the live (beta) pilot of the National Firearms Licensing Management System for the Metropolitan Police Service started on 14 November and for the Lancashire Constabulary on 21 November; when they expect the pilots to be concluded; and when they expect the system to go live nationally. [HL3205]
The Minister of State, Home Office (Baroness Scotland of Asthal): The two beta pilot projects started on the dates given and were concluded on 2 December 2005. The lessons learned are being urgently assessed by the project board which will also look at the implications for rollout nationally.
Lord Astor of Hever asked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether, in light of the withdrawal of the Northern Ireland (Offences) Bill, they will now disband the Royal Military Police historical investigations team. [HL3327]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence (Lord Drayson): There are no plans to disband the 6th Regiment, Royal Military Police historical and information team, which was established as the focal point in Headquarters Northern Ireland for providing information to support the Police Service of Northern Ireland historical enquiry team review of all Troubles-related deaths.
Lord Berkeley asked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they have any plans to review the future roles of passenger transport executives and passenger transport authorities as part of a wider review of local government. [HL3263]
Lord Davies of Oldham: The Lyons inquiry is examining the financing and functions of local government, including therefore passenger transport authorities. Likewise they are included in the debate initiated by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister in summer 2004, which is likely to be drawn together in a White Paper in the summer of 2006.
Lord Garden asked Her Majesty's Government:
17 Jan 2006 : Column WA104The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence (Lord Drayson): To date there has been only one day of industrial action at RAF Shawbury and this has not caused disruption to training outputs.
Lord Steinberg asked Her Majesty's Government:
How many deaths and permanent injuries have occurred as a result of motor accidents in the past five years. [HL3276]
Lord Davies of Oldham: The number of fatalities and injured casualties in personal injury road accidents involving one or more motor vehicles are shown in the table.
Year | Killed | Injured* |
2000 | 3,386 | 315,782 |
2001 | 3,426 | 308,913 |
2002 | 3,413 | 298,442 |
2003 | 3,493 | 286,266 |
2004 | 3,202 | 276,806 |
Information on whether injuries sustained were permanent is not available.
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