§ Mr. KeyTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence for how long(a) 20 minutes of free telephone calls each week, (b) free e-blueys and (c) free e-mail facilities have been available to service personnel on (i) operations and (ii) exercises lasting more than two months; and what the annual cost of each service is. [155326]
§ Mr. Spellar[holding answer 28 March 2001]: Previously, operational welfare support has been provided only to personnel who are deployed overseas on operations under the command of PJHQ. As of 1 April 2001, welfare provision will be extended to include those personnel on maritime deployments that are expected to be away from the UK for two months or more and, also, other exercise deployments that are expected to last for two months or more outside the country in which the personnel are based.
All personnel deployed on overseas operations under the command of PJHQ have been entitled to 20 minutes of free telephone calls since September 1999. Access to 732W free e-bluey facilities is gradually being made available as equipment is delivered and personnel trained in its use. E-bluey equipment was deployed to the Balkans and the Falkland Islands for trials in December 1999. It was subsequently deployed to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Cyprus and Sierra Leone during 2000 and is to be deployed to Turkey in May 2001. UK service personnel who are deployed to the Gulf have for some time been given free access to the US forces own e-mail system, as a goodwill gesture. There is no information available to indicate when the US system was first deployed. Limited e-mail facilities were introduced in the Balkans in February 1999, and extended theatre-wide in November 2000, on completion of a programme of communication network infrastructure improvements. An e-mail facility was introduced in February 2001 for personnel deployed to Freetown, Sierra Leone. The system will be extended to all personnel in theatre in April 2001, with the deployment of an additional satellite terminal.
The annual cost of giving personnel a free 20-minute telephone call each week is currently in the region of £6 million and forecast to rise by £6.3 million from April. The annual cost of the e-bluey facility is £1.39 million and forecast to rise to £2.19 million from April. Information on the annual running costs of the e-mail facilities could be provided only at disproportionate cost, because call charges for this are contained in the telephone bills for each of the operational theatres.
The figures given assume that the current level of operational commitment remains unchanged and do not include the provision of welfare communications for personnel deploying to Oman on Exercise SAIF SAREEA later in the year, the costs for which are expected to be in the region of £6 million to £8 million.