§ Mr. Austin-WalkerTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many members of staff of the DRA at the Woolwich Arsenal site are on paid leave; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. AitkenThis is a matter delegated to the Defence Research Agency under its framework document. I have, therefore, asked the chief executive to reply direct to the hon. Member.
Letter from John Chisholm to Mr. John Austin-Walker, dated 28 October 1993:
In today's written answer the Minister of State for Defence Procurement informed you that I would be replying to your question about DRA staff at the Woolwich Arsenal sites.In answer to the first part of your question, there are no DRA staff members on special paid leave at the Woolwich Arsenal sites, although 10 MOD staff who were until recently on loan to the DRA but have been returned to MOD are on special paid leave whilst MOD examines their future employment.You also asked for a statement on the DRA situation at Woolwich. As I explained in my letter to you of 5 August commercial pressures have caused me to accelerate plans for the withdrawal of DRA staff from the Woolwich sites. Steps to achieve this withdrawal are in hand. Those scientific and technical staff from Woolwich for whom the DRA has a continuing requirement have now been transferred to the management of other Sectors within the DRA. The staff for whom we regrettably have no jobs have either been given letters of redundancy or have been informed that they will be returning to MOD. The last DRA staff will have left the Woolwich West site by 31 March 1994; a small number will remain on the East site until the end of March 1995.