§ Mr. McNamaraTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence which individuals and competencies were represented on the Baton Rounds Steering Group; when this body was created; what its annual budget is; and what meetings and correspondence the Group has had with the body set up as a result of the Patten Commission recommendation to commission urgent research to develop an alternative to the plastic baton round. [158053]
§ Mr. Charles ClarkeI have been asked to reply.
The Baton Rounds Steering Group which has now been wound up, comprised representatives of the police, the Home Office (including scientific advice), the Ministry of Defence (both military and scientific) and the Northern Ireland Office. It is not our practice to name individual members of committees or officials. The group itself held no budget.
As the work of the Baton Rounds Steering Group had largely been completed prior to the establishment of the project group looking at alternatives to the baton round, no formal meetings or correspondence between the two took place. But, as the majority of the organisations represented on the "Alternatives to Baton Rounds" project group were also represented on the Baton Rounds Steering Group, any relevant information was routinely shared.