§ Malcolm BruceTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list the UK sites where armour piercing and hard target penetrating warheads containing depleted uranium have been used, indicating the numbers used on each site in each year since 1990. [43414]
§ Dr. MoonieSince 1990, Depleted Uranium (DU) has been fired on the ranges at Kirkudbright, Eskmeals and West Freugh.
Details of the amount of DU fired are as follows. Because of the way in which data was collected at each establishment the figures for Kirkudbright and West Freugh are given in terms of numbers of rounds fired whereas the Eskmeals data is quoted in mass (Kg) of DU:
375W
Kirkudbright Year Rounds 1990 783 1991 666 1992 781 1993 682 1994 458 1995 286 1996 105 1997 734 1998 134 1999 136 2000 270 2001 126 TOTAL 4,378
Eskmeals Year Mass Kg 1990 1,520 1991 640 1992 1,076 1993 917 1994 512 1995 520 1996 0 1997 0 1998 0 1999 0 2000 0 2001 0 TOTAL 5,170 West Freugh
Approximately 215 rounds of the Phalanx weapons system were fired in 1990, all of which entered the sea 2km below low-water mark. There have been no DU firings since.
Errors have unfortunately been identified in the figures for DU projectiles fired at the Kirkudbright Training Area given in the responses on 5 December 2001, Official Report, column 342W, to the hon. Member for Galloway & Upper Nithsdale (Mr. Duncan) and on 14 June 2000, Official Report, column 644W, and 19 June 2000, Official Report, column 27W, to the then hon. Member for Galloway & Upper Nithsdale (Mr. Morgan). It is unclear how these inconsistencies occurred but it is possible the source figures came from data for planned firings rather than actual firings or there may have been a simple miscalculation. The above figures correct these errors.