§ Ms Roseanna CunninghamTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many times each of the armed services has been(a) used and (b) requested to carry out civilian projects for private individuals in the last five years. [36974]
§ Mr. SoamesThe information requested is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. A large number of requests for military aid to the civil community are for work of a minor nature and are handled on a local basis.
Some training projects are carried out on private land in Scotland from time to time.
§ Ms CunninghamTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will publish details of the guidelines and regulations by which the armed services can be used to carry out civilian projects for private individuals. [36975]
§ Mr. SoamesInstructions on the conduct of military aid to the civil community, whereby service personnel and equipment can be provided either in emergencies or as a routine activity, are contained in a joint service publication and are summarised in a pamphlet which is available to civil authorities and others. I am placing a copy of the pamphlet in the Library of the House. Examples of routine assistance on special projects are construction, demolition, repair and rehabilitation work. Tasks must be of social value to the community and of good training value to the services.
Separate regulations exist to cover circumstances in which Royal Engineer or other service units perform tasks of material benefit to a landowner which offer unusual or exceptional training value, the opportunity for which is not readily available on Ministry of Defence property. Such tasks may be undertaken on the basis that the landowner pays for all materials consumed, while we do not seek to recover the labour, plant and transport costs. These regulations are contained in "Army General and Administrative Instructions", which are classified documents.
§ Ms CunninghamTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many times, by whom and what was the cost of using(a) the Army, (b) the Royal Air Force and (c) the Royal Navy to carry out civilian projects for private individuals in Scotland in the last five years. [36976]
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§ Mr. SoamesThere are 31 recorded cases of Royal Engineer units of the Army carrying out projects in Scotland in the last five years in the course of training on private land, although the costs are not kept separately from those of the cost of normal training. The Royal Navy and Royal Air Force have no records of such activities over the last five years.