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Multinational Defence Co-operation

34. Ann Keen: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on progress in multinational defence co-operation. [148251]

Mr. Hoon: Multinational Defence Co-operation is a long established feature of Britain's defence. It brings a variety of benefits, including enhanced inter-operability, more efficient provision of capability and a fairer sharing of the defence burden. We are currently pursuing a number of new co-operative initiatives with a range of Allies and partners.

Royal Air Force

35. Mr. Gray: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what is the manpower strength of the Royal Air Force. [148252]

Mr. Spellar: The total strength of the Royal Air Force on 1 January 2001 was 54,251. This figure includes 252 Full Time Reserve Service personnel.

Armed Forces (Women)

39. Barbara Follett: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on women in the armed forces serving in front-line combat roles. [148256]

Mr. Hoon: Women already serve on the front line in ships and aircraft and in combat support roles in the Army. The remaining posts closed to women are mainly in the Royal Marines General Service Cadres, Household Cavalry and Royal Armoured Corps, Infantry and the RAF Regiment. In addition, for health reasons women do not serve in submarines or as clearance divers.

We are considering whether employment options for women in the armed forces can be expanded still further. This work will be completed later this year.

Strategic Defence Review

40. Ms Coffey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on progress in implementation of the Strategic Defence Review. [148257]

Mr. Hoon: I refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave earlier today to my hon. Friend the Member for Putney (Mr. Colman).

12 Feb 2001 : Column: 53W

Warships

Mr. Rapson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what assessment his Department has made of the numbers of skilled craft people required for the Government's warship building programme; and if he will make a statement. [148234]

Dr. Moonie: It is not feasible for the Ministry of Defence to make such an assessment as the numbers required depend on how contractors construct the ships, and we are encouraging them to be innovative in this to improve value for money. None the less, we keep under review a broad assessment of whether there is sufficient capacity in UK shipyards to undertake our forward Royal Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary shipbuilding programme. From this we believe that there is sufficient capacity in UK shipyards to undertake our forward warship building programme.

Mr. Fabricant: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on the state of readiness of the Royal Navy's type 42 frigates. [148235]

Mr. Spellar: There are currently 11 type 42 destroyers in service. Of these, seven are available for operations, fulfilling operational tasking, exercises and training requirements. The remaining four are in periods of refit or upgrade and maintenance.

Mr. Leigh: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on the type 45 destroyer. [148237]

Dr. Moonie: A contract was placed on 20 December with BAE Systems Electronics--the nominated prime contractor for the type 45 programme--for the Demonstration and First-of-Class Manufacture phase covering the completion of the design and build of the first three type 45 destroyers.

Our procurement strategy as announced by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Defence in the House on 11 July 2000 has not changed. Under this, subject to agreement between prime contractor and shipbuilders, the first and third ship would be assembled by BAE Systems Marine with a substantial contribution by Vosper Thornycroft (VT) and the second ship by VT. It is expected that the prime contractor will be in a position to place shipbuilding contracts later this year.

Vessel Repairs

Mr. Mackinlay: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on his Department's policy on the repair of HMS Tireless and other vessels in that class. [148254]

Mr. Spellar: I refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave him on 29 January 2001, Official Report, columns 64-65W. I would also refer my hon. Friend to the reply I gave to the hon. Member for Chingford and Woodford Green (Mr. Duncan Smith) on 19 December 2000, Official Report, column 94W.

Defence Jobs (Scotland)

Mr. Malcolm Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many Ministry of Defence related jobs were based in each Scottish local authority area in each year since 1996. [149079]

12 Feb 2001 : Column: 54W

Dr. Moonie: The number of directly employed Ministry of Defence jobs in each Scottish local authority area since 1996 is set out in the table.

Table 1: Direct MOD employment in Scottish local authority areas

Local authority area	Service	Civilian	Civilian casual
1 July 1996
City of Aberdeen	37	109	2
Aberdeenshire	473	72	11
Angus	1,119	121	8
Argyll and Bute	4,039	3,487	13
Borders	1	1	0
Dumfries and Galloway	2	64	0
City of Dundee	43	43	6
City of Edinburgh	1,830	516	22
East Dunbartonshire	2	8	0
East Lothian	0	12	0
Falkirk	1	2	0
Fife	1,673	1,369	44
City of Glasgow	446	1,309	30
Highland	560	76	10
Inverclyde	20	152	1
Midlothian	674	84	5
Moray	3,896	557	20
North Ayrshire	3	606	14
North Lanarkshire	3	3	0
Orkney	0	5	0
Perth and Kinross	19	432	13
Renfrewshire	4	26	0
Shetland Islands	184	49	7
South Ayrshire	460	57	1
South Lanarkshire	2	7	0
Stirling	17	360	33
West Dunbartonshire	0	23	1
West Lothian	0	3	1
Western Isles	150	108	20

Local authority area	Service	Civilian	Civilian casual
1 July 1997
City of Aberdeen	27	90	2
Aberdeenshire	389	88	7
Angus	1,189	121	7
Argyll and Bute	3,543	3,381	19
Borders	0	1	0
Dumfries and Galloway	0	69	0
City of Dundee	41	52	4
City of Edinburgh	1,503	516	18
East Dunbartonshire	2	7	1
East Lothian	0	12	1
Falkirk	1	3	0
Fife	1,455	1,248	45
City of Glasgow	578	1,745	24
Highland	62	86	10
Inverclyde	7	61	1
Midlothian	602	89	2
Moray	3,726	680	15
North Ayrshire	1	608	4
North Lanarkshire	3	2	0
Orkney	0	5	0
Perth and Kinross	21	450	12
Renfrewshire	4	27	0
Shetland Islands	174	59	1
South Ayrshire	395	60	2
South Lanarkshire	1	7	0
Stirling	22	367	21
West Dunbartonshire	0	19	0
West Lothian	2	4	0
Western Isles	143	103	7

12 Feb 2001 : Column: 55W

Local authority area	Service	Civilian	Civilian casual
1 July 1998
City of Aberdeen	25	96	0
Aberdeenshire	356	89	2
Angus	987	118	5
Argyll and Bute	3,336	3,039	16
Borders	1	1	0
Dumfries and Galloway	1	58	0
City of Dundee	40	54	1
City of Edinburgh	1,589	509	16
East Dunbartonshire	0	0	0
East Lothian	0	11	0
Falkirk	1	3	0
Fife	1,605	1,111	22
City of Glasgow	1,089	1,765	26
Highland	33	80	7
Inverclyde	6	60	1
Midlothian	807	101	2
Moray	3,830	704	12
North Ayrshire	2	598	2
North Lanarkshire	4	3	0
Orkney	0	5	0
Perth and Kinross	20	427	8
Renfrewshire	6	10	0
Shetland Islands	156	59	0
South Ayrshire	389	63	0
South Lanarkshire	0	7	0
Stirling	22	327	8
West Dunbartonshire	2	28	0
West Lothian	1	4	1
Western Isles	100	55	2

Local authority area	Service	Civilian	Civilian casual
1 July 1999
City of Aberdeen	18	94	1
Aberdeenshire	335	87	2
Angus	1,075	123	2
Argyll and Bute	3,516	3,155	15
Borders	1	1	0
Dumfries and Galloway	1	87	1
City of Dundee	54	63	1
City of Edinburgh	1,736	503	18
East Dunbartonshire	0	0	0
East Lothian	0	9	0
Falkirk	0	2	1
Fife	1,800	1,069	28
City of Glasgow	1,217	1,824	9
Highland	27	88	2
Inverclyde	6	59	1
Midlothian	708	103	4
Moray	3,767	732	20
North Ayrshire	4	570	3
North Lanarkshire	2	3	0
Orkney	0	5	0
Perth and Kinross	13	400	16
Renfrewshire	8	24	0
Shetland Islands	148	56	3
South Ayrshire	385	62	1
South Lanarkshire	2	6	0
Stirling	22	289	21
West Dunbartonshire	2	40	2
West Lothian	2	3	0
Western Isles	88	14	2

In addition to this direct employment, the MOD supports a significant number of defence-related jobs throughout the UK. While DASA (the Defence Analytical Services Agency) does not produce estimates of these

12 Feb 2001 : Column: 56W

employment levels for local authority areas, their estimate ¹ of the defence-related employment for Scotland as a whole is set out in the table.

¹ The method used to provide national and regional employment estimates requires the combination of two elements. First, a breakdown of MOD equipment expenditure with UK industry (using the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC)) and second, a measure of sales per employee for each of the industries receiving defence spending (derived from the ONS Business Enquiry and the Labour Market Survey). Dividing the first by the second gives an estimate of those employed directly on defence contracts. These estimates do not include indirect employment. The figures exclude MOD Civilian and Service Personnel. The full estimation methodology is outlined in Defence Statistics Bulletin No. 3). There is no internal method of isolating the amount of employment generated as a direct result of any one procurement decision. The sales per head data used in calculating the data do not distinguish between individual projects and is more an indiction of permanent or ongoing employment within a defence contractor. DASA rely for their information on a Defence Bills Agency (DBA) database--the Monthly Journal of Records (MJRECS), which is populated, in part by data from the DEFFORM 57. This form is completed by commercial staff each time a new MOD headquarters contract is placed (as opposed to Local Purchase Order). The DEFFORM gives quite a detailed picture of the type of contract placed e.g. on pricing, and information describing the region where a contract is placed. The form utilises a 'location of work code'. MOD expenditure on equipment in the UK is derived from the MOD Central Ledger (Return 5) and can be split by region using data from MJRECS--detailed. Each expenditure has a location code for the prime contractor in the transaction. The proportion of expenditure, which might be spent in the region, is determined by the location of the prime contractor and does not take account of those of sub-contractors. The proportions calculated from MJRECS are then applied to total expenditure on equipment in the UK to find the values in each region. Using sales per head data we are able to calculate estimates of employment dependent on equipment expenditure by applying them to regional breakdown derived from MJRECS.

Table 2: estimated direct MOD related employment in Scottish local authority areas

Year	Employment
1995-96	8,000
1996-97	7,000
1997-98	6,000
1998-99	6,000

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