HC Deb 15 October 2001 vol 372 cc961-2W
Mr. Hancock

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many UK service personnel have been involved in training in Canada in each of the last three years; how many have been(a) killed and (b) seriously injured; how many incidents there have been involving live firing; and if he will make a statement. [7179]

Mr. Ingram

The facilities used by the UK armed forces in Canada at Suffield and Wainwright offer excellent training opportunities and, as is the case wherever we train, safety is of paramount importance. Safety is managed by trained staff using GPS, cellular phone and terrain data base technology. Any death or injury is, of course, a matter of great regret, but our safety record in Canada—as elsewhere—is good.

The numbers of UK service personnel involved in training in Canada in each of the last three years, the numbers killed and seriously injured, and the number of live firing incidents that were investigated by the land accident investigation team (LAIT) are shown in the table.

1999 2000 20011
Numbers of UK Service personnel involved in training 5,665 5,579 7,712
Numbers killed 0 1 1
Numbers seriously injured 1 1 3
Numbers of live firing incidents investigated by LAIT 4 8 3
1 To date