Equipment and Furniture (Hansard, 27 February 1997)

§ Mr. Arbuthnot

A central record is not kept of individual items unaccounted for. All such cases are thoroughly investigated with a view to establishing the facts and preventing a recurrence. Where a loss has occurred and recovery proves impracticable, the items in question are written off, and the relevant appropriation account noted accordingly. Items over £100,000 value are reported and noted individually.

Twenty items of equipment have been reported as stolen in the past 12 months, with an estimated value of £75,300. Two thermal imagers and related items valued together at £69,589 were the only items valued at more than £5,000.

In addition, 29 items of information technology equipment have been reported as stolen in the past 12 months, with an estimated value of £31,043. None of these had an individual value of £5,000 or more.

No thefts of furniture have been reported.

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This information does not include any losses from defence agencies, I have asked the chief executives to write direct to the hon. Member with relevant information.

Letter from J. A. Trewby to Mr. Ian McCartney, dated 27 February 1997: I am replying to your Question to the Secretary of State for Defence about the cost and number of items of equipment and furniture that have been (a) stolen and (b) are otherwise unaccounted for during the past 12 months insofar as it applies to the Naval Bases and Supply Agency (NBSA) as this matter falls within my area of responsibility. The NBSA launched in December 1996 and is formed from a number of different management areas within the MOD. The exact information you have requested is not readily available due to system changes, but the following information is available for this financial year:

(a) Three items have been stolen with a total value of £7,937.48 (VAT inclusive). None of these were information technology items. No single item involved was valued in excess of £5,000.
(b) Material losses authorised this financial year amount to 907 items with a total value of £2,709,597.09 (VAT inclusive). This figure includes losses caused by damage to equipment. There were no losses of information technology equipment. Eleven of these cases involved items with an individual item value in excess of £5,000; these are listed below.

Item description	Value £ (VAT inclusive)
Fixed probe assembly	9,839.45
Gyro and card set kit	14,414.90
Rudder servo (quantity 2)	20,201.77
Fan centrifugal (quantity 2)	11,376.35
Filter module	5,254.60
Actuator rotary	9,770.13
Regulator assembly	8,328.40
Lifting/load	7,032.38
Vector voltmeter	5,876.18
Transmitter	10,250.00
Radar platform	6,164.69

Letter from R. H. Kyle to Mr. Ian McCartney, dated 27 February 1997: Items of equipment and furniture that have either been stolen or otherwise unaccounted for in the Royal Air Force Maintenance Group Defence Agency I am replying to your question to the Secretary of State for Defence about items of equipment and furniture that have been stolen, lost or unaccounted for during the past 12 months because this matter falls within my area of responsibility as Chief Executive of the Royal Air Force Maintenance Group Defence Agency. A list of all such items with an individual value exceeding £5,000 is given at Annex A. Actual losses are rare; when compared with the amount of equipment issued (more than 1 million items), the figure of 29 represents only 0.003% of the total number. There have been no losses of information technology equipment.

Annex A: RAF MGDA equipment and furniture losses
Serial number	Item	Value of the item £	Stolen yes/no
1	Flight compass 1081706	7,925	No
2	Value 118 7884	7,407	No
3	Transformer receiver 10D 9550582	9,666	No
4	Fairing assembly 1560 99 6131360	6,462	No
5	Screwjack assembly 1680 1591069	5,202	No
6	Pole assembly 26LX 6414634	6,487	No

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Annex A: RAF MGDA equipment and furniture losses
Serial number	Item	Value of the item £	Stolen yes/no
7	Box assembly 26VC 23304	7,166	No
8	Coupling port 36DE 7752541	7,597	No
9	Leading edge 1560 99 6120145	6,221	No
10	Skin panel 26VC 8705542	11,005	No
11	Emruno 22MK2 11A 6345911	14,699	No
12	Nose cone 1560 01 2951228	35,849	No
13	Airbrakes Pt 1560 14 0416316	5,686	No
14	Housing 2915 14 419517	7,782	No
15	Nozzle port 26VN 7775986	6,035	No
16	Rodsighting 26DL 6011375	6,389	No
17	Brake unit 27G 1501909	5,948	No
18	Fan 5UD 4390830	5,695	No
19	Inverter 4F 513039	10,446	No
20	Jack airbrake 1650 99 733 9589	9,392	No
21	Fairing starboard 26VA 6057455	10,680	No
22	Standcocking 12A 9635240	6,130	No
23	Pump37S 11568	18,495	No
24	Indicator B 110Q 6274221	8,187	No
25	Shaft assembly port 26VA 6049508	6,213	No
26	HPU fuel pump 4320 12 1931468	6,905	No
27	Case 136MG 379347	14,141	No
28	Batteries and transmitter	7,969	Yes
29	Message processor and video receiver 1195 01 255823	21,900	Under investigation

Letter from W. E. E. Boreham to Mr. Ian McCartney, dated 27 February 1997: I am replying to your Question to the Secretary of State for Defence about stolen and unaccounted equipment and furniture, as this falls into my area of responsibility as Chief Constable/Chief Executive of the Ministry of Defence police Agency. During the last twelve months I have identified the theft of one laptop computer, ten expandable batons, and one pair of handcuffs complete with pouch. The total value of the stolen equipment was some £2,290,00.

Letter from P. R. Wildman to Mr. Ian McCartney, dated 27 February 1997: I am replying to your Question to the Secretary of State for Defence about items of equipment and furniture that have been stolen or otherwise unaccounted for by his Department and its agencies as this matter falls within my area of responsibility as Chief Executive of Military Survey Defence Agency. One item of IT equipment has been stolen in the past twelve months with an estimated value of £500. No IT equipment was lost. A small number of miscellaneous items were lost during the past twelve months. All cases were investigated and where recovery was impracticable the items were written off. No item was valued at £5,000 or more. No thefts of furniture have been reported. This information is exclusive to Military Survey Defence Agency.

Letter from A. J. Stables to Mr. Ian McCartney, dated 27 February 1997:

I am replying to your Question to the Secretary of State for Defence about the cost and number of items of equipment and furniture that have been stolen or otherwise unaccounted for during the past 12 months, as this matter falls within my area of responsibility as Chief Executive of the Royal Air Force Training Group Defence Agency. There have been 30 items of equipment and furniture stolen during the period, for which the total estimated value was £20,048. This includes a vehicle and its contents valued at £14,851. 374W Four items of information technology material valued at a total of £993 were unaccounted for, as were 378 other items of equipment and furniture valued at a total of £13,610. In addition, a number of low cost cutlery items with a total estimated value of £1,032 were also unaccounted for.

Letter from W. H. J. Kelly to Mr. Ian McCartney, dated 27 February 1997: The Secretary of State for Defence has asked the Chief Executive of the Naval Recruiting and Training Agency (NRTA) to reply to your Parliamentary Question, about the cost and number of items of equipment and furniture stolen or otherwise unaccounted for during the past 12 months within the NRTA. I am replying on behalf of the Chief Executive in his absence. 18 items of equipment have been reported as stolen in the past 12 months with an estimated total value of £2,896.84. Two of these items were furniture and one item was IT equipment. 101 items of equipment with an estimated value of £67,169.83 are unaccounted for, however, none of these had an individual value of £5,000 or more. I hope that this is helpful.

Letter from David G. Wadsworth to Mr. Ian McCartney, dated 27 February 1997: I am replying to your question to the Secretary of State for Defence seeking information about the cost and number of items of equipment and furniture that (a) have been stolen and (b) are otherwise unaccounted for during the past 12 months, insofar as this matter falls within my area of responsibility as Chief Executive of Service Children's Schools Agency. During the past 12 months there have been 3 separate reported incidents of theft of equipment from schools within British Forces Germany. The stolen equipment comprised of 8 individual items of classroom based Information Technology equipment at a total estimated value of £5,400 and 3 individual items of classroom based audio visual aids at a total estimated value of £500. These incidents were investigated by the Royal Military Police; however none of these items have since been recovered. There has been no unaccounted losses to report against your point (b).

Letter from M. I. Laurie to Mr. Ian McCartney, dated 27 February 1997: I am replying to your Question to the Secretary of State for Defence concerning lost or stolen equipment as this matter falls within my area of responsibility as the Chief Executive of the Defence Intelligence and Security Centre. During the previous 12 months, three items of equipment have been stolen, with a total value of £3670. Two of these items were laptop computers valued at £1736 each.

Letter from G. Jones to Mr. Ian McCartney, dated 27 February 1997: I am replying to your Question to the Secretary of State for Defence concerning the cost and numbers of items of equipment and furniture that have been stolen or otherwise unaccounted for from his Department and agencies during the past 12 months, as these matters fall within my responsibility as Chief Executive of the Royal Air Force Signals Engineering Establishment Defence Agency. Specifically, you asked for a listing, by name, of any such items valued at £5000 or more, with information technology material shown separately. During the last 12 months, 7 items, with a total value of £2848.10, have been unaccounted for at the Royal Air Force Signals Engineering Establishment. None of the items were information technology material.

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Letter from R. V. Babington to Mr. Ian McCartney, dated 27 February 1997: I am replying in part to your question to the Secretary of State for Defence about equipment and furniture that has been stolen or unaccounted for, in relation to my area of responsibility as the Chief Executive of the Ships Support Agency. In the last twelve months there have been four items of information technology material stolen, at a value of £800. Two items of information technology material have also been lost or damaged during an attempted theft, at a value of £900.

Letter from John R. Prince to Mr. Ian McCartney, dated 27 February 1997: I am replying to your question to the Secretary of State for Defence about stolen and unaccounted items of equipment and furniture, as this matters falls within my area of responsibility as Chief Executive of the Army Technical Support Agency (ATSA). From a capital asset base of approximately 10,000 lines, we have still to account for 2 items as follows:

Item	Value
1 video camera	1,000
1 notebook computer	1,000

These are currently the subject of Ministry of Defence Police investigations. The asset base excludes furniture, which we do not generally account for as it tends to be of low value.

Letter from P. D. Foxton to Mr. Ian McCartney, dated 27 February 1997: I am replying to your Question to the Secretary of State for Defence on office equipment and furniture that has been stolen or otherwise unaccounted for during the last twelve months, for those areas that fall within my responsibility as Chief Executive of the Army Base Storage and Distribution Agency (ABSDA). To the best of my knowledge, following enquiries throughout the whole of ABSDA, office equipment to the value of £305 remains unaccounted for, made up in the main of minor items such as calculators and mains adapters. There is no proof of theft and there have therefore, been no criminal prosecutions. There have been no instances of information technology material going missing. As a whole, office equipment in ABSDA, including information technology material, is well documented, highly visible and as a result, appropriately safeguarded. I hope this fully answers your query.

Letter from J. R. Drew to Mr. Ian McCartney, dated 27 February 1997: You asked the Secretary of State for Defence about the cost and number of items of equipment and furniture stolen from, or unaccounted for by, his department and its agencies over the past 12 months. As this matter falls within my area of responsibility as Chief Executive of the Army Base Repair Organisation (ABRO), I am replying in respect of this agency. Thirteen items of IT equipment valued at £14,595 were written off in FY96/97. These were stolen in one incident at one of our Contract Repair Offices. This included a PC Server which originally cost £9,178. A full investigation by the police failed to shed any light on the burglary or the perpetrators and gave no prospect of recovery. There is no consolidated figure yet available for all stores losses in FY 96/97. The total amount written off in FY 95/96 for all reasons was £24,545 covering 211 individual items.

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Letter from C. A. Gordon to Mr. Ian McCartney, dated 27 February 1997: I am replying to your question to the Secretary of State for Defence about losses and thefts of equipment and furniture form this Agency over the last 12 months, as this matter falls within my area of responsibility as Deputy Chief Executive of the Army Individual Training Organisation. Records are maintained of all equipment and furniture stolen, irreparably damaged or unaccounted for, but they do no invariably distinguish between these losses where the sums involved are small. Within these limits, the information you have requested is shown below. You may, however, like to note that a large number of the items included in the Damaged or Unaccounted For column are small items of cutlery etc of little intrinsic value.

Numbers of items:	Total	Individual items valued at
Stolen	Damaged or unaccounted for	value	over £5000
79	1,960	149,448	(1) Victaulic pipe (£41,049)
			(2) 110v power tools (£10,143)
			(3) Night vision Goggles (£13,438
			(4) Digital master unit (£9,151)

Included in the above are three items of IT equipment with a total value of £5243, which have all been stolen. I hope this is helpful.

Letter from I. G. Mclntyre to Mr. Ian McCartney, dated 27 February 1997: I am replying to your question to the Secretary of State for Defence/Her Majesty's Government about the cost and number of items of equipment and furniture that have been stolen or are otherwise unaccounted for during the last 12 months, as this matter falls within my area of responsibility as Chief Executive of the Defence Dental Agency. Equipment and furniture lost or unaccounted for with the Defence Dental Agency is listed below:

(a) Miscellaneous Medical/Dental Equipment items x 32 = £2561.87
(b) Information Technology Material = £ NIL

I hope this is of help.

Letter from John Chisholm to Mr. Ian McCartney, dated 27 February 1997: I have been asked to reply, on behalf of the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA), to your question asking for information about property stolen or otherwise unaccounted for during the last twelve months. DERA procedures identify two categories of equipment, items valued at more than £10,000 and items valued at less than £10,000. The responsibility for maintaining registers, safeguarding equipment and investigating any losses relating to items valued at less than £10,000 is devolved to a working level. There are more than 600 such registers kept within DERA. Items valued at more than £10,000 are recorded centrally, are routinely checked and any loss or damage investigation is notified centrally. No items valued at £10,000 or more have been reported centrally as lost, stolen or damaged during the past twelve months. Because of the devolved nature of the records held on equipment valued at less than £10,000 it has not been possible to collect this information in the time available. I am sorry that I cannot be more helpful on this occasion.

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Letter from Ron Smith to Mr. Ian McCartney, dated 27 February 1997: I am replying to your Question to the Secretary of State for Defence about the loss of equipment and furniture by Defence Agencies as this matter, in respect of the Defence Secondary Care Agency (DSCA), falls within my area of responsibility as Chief Executive of the DSCA. In the DSCA there were, in the last twelve months, 355 items unaccounted for to a total value of £11,644; of these, it is believed none were stolen. In addition, there were three items of IT equipment unaccounted for (total value £2,200) and six IT items which we believe were individually valued at £5K or over.

Letter from W. E. Speadbury to Mr. Ian McCartney, dated 27 February 1997: In the absence on duty of the Chief Executive, I am replying to your Question to the Secretary of State for Defence concerning the cost and number of items of equipment and furniture that have been stolen and are otherwise unaccounted for during the past 12 months. I am pleased to report that during this period no equipment or furniture has been stolen or is otherwise unaccounted for.

Letter from F. A. Bush to Mr. Ian McCartney, dated 27 February 1997: I am replying to your Question to the Secretary of State for Defence, about stolen and unaccounted for equipment and furniture, as this matter falls within my area of responsibility as Acting Chief Executive of the Defence Transport and Movements Executive Agency. During the last 12 months, we have identified the loss of 97 International Standards Organisation (ISO) containers, which are missing following operations over the past 4 years in the former Republic of Yugoslavia. Their value is approximately £174K and within this total there are 7 refrigerated containers, each valued at £5000 or more.

Letter from B. E. Nimick to Mr. Ian McCartney, dated 27 February 1997: I am replying to your Question to the Secretary of State for Defence about the cost and number of items of equipment and furniture that have either been stolen or otherwise unaccounted for as this matter falls within my area of responsibility as Chief Executive of the Medical Supplies Agency. No such equipment or furniture has been reported stolen or unaccounted for over the past 12 months.

Letter from J. C R. Hunt to Mr. Ian McCartney, dated 27 February 1997: I am replying to your Question to the Secretary of State for Defence about the cost and number of items of equipment and furniture that have been stolen or unaccounted for during the last 12 months, as this falls within my area of responsibility as Chief Executive of the Meteorological Office. The type and value of equipment and furniture stolen from the Meteorological Office in the last year is as follows:

Dell Pentium PC and network card valued at £2,000
HP Laserjet 5 printer valued at £3,000
Dell PC valued at £1,500
Laptop stolen from employees' care valued at £2,000.
No other items are unaccounted for.
I hope this gives you the information you need.

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Letter from Mr. S. R. Hill to Mr. Ian McCartney, dated 27 February 1997:

1. I am replying to your Question to the Secretary of State for Defence about the cost and number of items of equipment and furniture that (a) have been stolen and (b) are otherwise unaccounted for during the past 12 months, as this matter falls within my area of repsonsibility as Chief Executive of the Naval Aircraft Repair Organisation (NARO).
2. Four items only have been stolen, amounting to a total value of £294.23.