§ Mr. StunellTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list each group that is responsible to his Department, with significant and plural membership from outside the Civil Service, and to which the Nolan rules on non-departmental public bodies do not apply; and for each such group, if it(a) is a private company, (b) is a charity, (c) has no formal legal basis and (d) has some other legal basis, giving details. [131172]
§ Dr. Moonie[holding answer 18 July 2000]: Details of Ministry of Defence task forces, ad hoc advisory groups and reviews are held on a central Cabinet Office database. I refer the hon. Member to the answer he received yesterday from my hon. Friend the Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office, Official Report, columns 799–800W.
The bodies listed for the Ministry of Defence are the Independent Panel on Vaccines Interactions and the Service Families Task Force. Both of these bodies have no formal legal basis.
In addition to the above, which have temporary remits, the Ministry of Defence is responsible for a number of standing bodies with significant and plural membership from outside the Civil Service, and to which the Nolan rules on non-departmental public bodies do not apply. These include bodies which provide independent advice on aspects of the defence scientific and research programme, details of which were recently passed to the House of Commons Select Committee on Defence. Information on other bodies is not held centrally and I will write to the hon. Member in due course when the relevant data are available, and a copy of my letter will be placed in the Library of the House.
The Ministry of Defence seeks to apply the Nolan principles for non-departmental public bodies as best practice throughout the Department.