§ Mr. CohenTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many bedrooms his Department maintains in(a) the MOD building, Whitehall and (b) elsewhere in central London; what is the rate of occupancy of these bedrooms; and what proportion of these are reserved for the use of civil servants and service personnel who are not based in London but are required to visit his Department's offices in London.
§ Mr. HanleyThere are a small number of bedrooms in MOD main building, Whitehall—including PINDAR—for the use of essential service and civilian personnel and duty staff. None of this accommodation is appropriate for use by Crown servants visiting my Department's offices in London. We are also responsible for a number of Army messes in the London area; there are 2,032 beds—some in shared rooms—of which 1,883 were occupied on 3 May 1994 by personnel employed or on a course. On that date, 143–7 per cent.—of the beds were available to civilian and military personnel.