Faraday Station (Hansard, 7 February 1995)

§ Mr. Tony Banks
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster if he will provide additional resources to124W enable the Faraday station to stockpile sufficient quantities of baked beans to last until the closure of the station.

§ Mr. David Hunt
The provisioning of the United Kingdom's Antarctic stations is the responsibility of the Natural Environment Research Council and its institute, the British Antarctic Survey.

§ Mr. Tony Banks
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (1) when the House was informed of the proposal to transfer Faraday station to the Ukraine;
(2) who took the decision to hand over Faraday station to the Ukraine; when it was taken; and what are the terms of the transfer.

§ Mr. David Hunt
The House was informed of the decision to close Faraday from March 1996, as a manned station, by the then Parliamentary Secretary, Office of Public Service and Science, on 19 May 1993,Official Report, columns 157–58.
Subsequently, the possibility of transfer of the station as a working unit to another operator was explored by the Foreign Office. Negotiations with the Ukrainians were opened following authorisation by the then Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, in June 1994. These have yet to be concluded.
The terms of the transfer are still subject to negotiation.

§ Mr. Tony Banks
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (1) what guarantees he is able to give that the scientific work currently being carried out by the Faraday station will continue after 1995–96;
(2) what scientific work on the ozone layer is carried out by staff at the Faraday station; and who will carry out this work after the station closes.

§ Mr. David Hunt
If the Faraday station is closed as a manned station, the British Antarctic Survey will complete the development of automated data collection systems, which will enable key long-term meteorological and magnetic observations to be completed at Faraday.
Should negotiations for the transfer of the station to the Ukrainians prove successful, their scientists will, after training, carry out the existing scientific measurements at Faraday and transfer the resulting data to the United Kingdom.
Ozone measurements have been carried out for many years at Faraday. The monitoring programme will either continue in that location or be transferred to Rothera island.