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Joint Strike Fighter Programme

Lord Garden asked Her Majesty's Government:

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:

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.

Manufacturing Industry: Job Losses

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
 

Milk Development Council

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.
PresentAverageAverageAverage
2004–052003–042002–03
Extension Officers8664
School Milk Facilitators14 (11)14 (12)3 (2)
Other Staff29 (1)231913 (1)
Total51 (12)43 (12)28 (2)17 (l)




Source: Milk Development Council


Note:

The numbers in brackets reflect those that are part-time






Ministers of Religion from Abroad

Baroness Cox asked Her Majesty's Government:

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
 

National Firearms Licensing Management System

Lord Marlesford asked Her Majesty's Government:

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.

Northern Ireland (Offences) Bill: Historical Investigations

Lord Astor of Hever asked Her Majesty's Government:

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.

Passenger Transport Executives and Authorities

Lord Berkeley asked Her Majesty's Government:

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.

RAF Shawbury: Industrial Action

Lord Garden asked Her Majesty's Government:

17 Jan 2006 : Column WA104
 

The 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.

Roads: Accidents

Lord Steinberg asked Her Majesty's Government:

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.
YearKilledInjured*
20003,386315,782
20013,426308,913
20023,413298,442
20033,493286,266
20043,202276,806




* Includes both seriously and slightly injured.






Information on whether injuries sustained were permanent is not available.


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