HC Deb 25 February 1997 vol 291 cc188-9W
Mr. Simpson

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what has been the cost of the decommissioning and lay-up of nuclear-powered submarines in each of the past 15 years. [16561]

Mr. Arbuthnot

This is a matter for the chief executive of the Ships Support Agency. I have asked the chief executive to write to the hon. Member.

Letter from R. V. Babington to Mr. Alan Simpson, dated 25 February 1997: I am replying to your question to the Secretary of State for Defence about the costs of decommissioning and laying up of nuclear powered submarines in each of the last fifteen years, as this matter falls within my area of responsibility as Chief Executive of the Ships Support Agency. The cost details on the attached table relate to the period 1990/91 to 1996/97 exclusively; prior to that date only HMS DREADNOUGHT underwent decommissioning and lay-up, in 1982/83, and it is not possible to provide costs for this vessel.

The Attorney-General

Cases discontinued by the CPS fell from 193,110, or 13.3 per cent. of completed cases in magistrates courts, in 1992 to 153,274, or 12 per cent. of completed cases, in 1996.

Tables providing detailed information about the outcome of cases conducted by the Crown Prosecution Service in each of the past five years were placed in the Library of the House as part of my written answer yesterday to the hon. Member for Tooting (Mr. Cox), Official Report, 24 February 1997, column 22. The Crown Prosecution Service records the outcome of proceedings by numbers of defendants rather than charges, and statistics are maintained for CPS areas which correspond to the police forces as shown on a new table which, to assist the hon. Member, I have added to the tables in the Library.

List of police forces served by each CPS area
CPS area Police force
North Cumbria
Durham
Northumbria
Cleveland
Yorkshire North Yorkshire
West Yorkshire
Mersey/Lancashire Lancashire
Merseyside
Humber Humberside
Lincolnshire
South Yorkshire
North West Cheshire
Greater Manchester
East Midlands Derbyshire
Nottinghamshire
Leicestershire
Northamptonshire
Wales North Wales
Dyfed-Powys
South Wales
Gwent
Midlands Staffordshire
West Midlands
Warwickshire
Anglia Bedfordshire
Cambridgeshire
Hertfordshire
Essex
Norfolk
Suffolk
Severn/Thames West Mercia
Gloucestershire
Wiltshire
Thames Valley
South West Avon and Somerset
Devon and Cornwall
Dorset
South East Hampshire
Surrey
Sussex
Kent
London City of London
Metropolitan