§ Mr. Coxasked the Secretary of State for Defence what investigations are at present under way supported by his Department which were proposed by the Royal Navy Personnel Research Committee and the Army Personnel Research Committee.
§ Mr. Lee[pursuant to his reply, 9 April 1984, c. 43]: The Royal Naval Personnel Research Committee and the Army Personnel Research Committee advise the Ministry of Defence, through or on behalf of the Medical Research Council, on biological medical, physiological, psychological and sociological matters affecting the health and efficiency of Royal Naval and Army personnel. The RNPRC has given advice in the following areas of research: physical fitness in RN personnel; RN and RM officer selection procedures (which has led to two MOD research agreements with the Department of Occupational Psychology, Birkbeck college, University of London, to study the process of decision making in the boarding procedure at the Admiralty interview board and the use of biographical information as a predictor of training results for officers); the organisation of a workshop on stress and performance testing; deep diving research; carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide studies; studies into Halon 1301 (bromotrifluormethan); submarine escape physiology; body cooling in cold water (diving); cold injury research; ship motion and motion sickness; survival at sea (includes cold immersion research, life raft stability and ventilation, thermal insulation) survival clothing. The Army Personnel Research Committee has only recently been reconstituted and no investigations are currently under way as a result of proposals it has made.