§ Mr. Kirkwoodasked the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list in the Official Report the number of low-flying missions flown in the United Kingdom for each year since 1979; how many flights traversed the Ministry of Defence area which contains the Borders region each year during that period; and how many formal complaints have been received from residents within the Borders region during the period.
§ Mr. FreemanAs far as low-flying missions flown in the United Kingdom since 1979 are concerned I refer the hon. Member to my reply of 22 April at column585 to the hon. Member for Merionnydd Nant Conwy (Mr. Thomas). The low-flying administrative area containing the Borders consists of Scotland south of a line between the firths of Forth and Clyde, and the figures in columns 2 and 3 relate to movements into and complaints from this area. The number of movements in a mission is variable but around 2.5 on average.
1 2 3 4 Year Movements in southern Scotland Complaints from southern Scotland Complaints from Borders Region 1979 n/a n/a n/a 1980 9,203 n/a n/a 1981 12,526 265 n/a 1982 13,460 163 n/a 1983 16,624 163 n/a 1984 18,573 169 n/a 1985 20,204 157 n/a 1986 20,919 213 62 1987 13,198 251 21 1 Up to 28 February. 2 Up to 31 March.