It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

The information relating to which suppliers are contractually employed is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost due to the number of suppliers involved in these programmes.

In addition, the Ministry of Defence does not compile employment numbers on the defence equipment supply chain.

The military and civilian personnel based in the Overseas Territories in March 2013 are shown in the following table:

The civilian personnel figure includes locally employed civilian personnel.

The military figures may vary from published statistics as personnel change location or are deployed on operations. Figures above 100 have been rounded down to the nearest 10.

There are no military and or Ministry of Defence civilian personnel serving in the following regions Anguilla, Bermuda, British Antarctic Territory, British Antarctic Territory, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands,

Montserrat, Pitcairn; Henderson; Ducie and Oeno Islands, St Helena, Tristan da Cunha, South Georgia South Sandwich Islands and Turks and Caicos Islands.

A broad estimate of the number of days work carried out in the last five years by civilian defence officials is set out in the following table. Each full-time member of staff is expected to work 214 days per year after the deduction of weekends, public and privilege holidays and annual leave. From this must be deducted the average level of sick leave taken.

Since the publication of the National Audit Office Report “Managing the Defence Inventory” in June 2012, a number of short and medium term actions are being implemented. These include: a coordinated recruitment exercise to fill critical posts within the Inventory Management function; a 25% increase in personnel mandated to undertake higher level qualifications and the appointment of a senior head of profession for all Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) inventory management personnel.

We have also engaged Ernst and Young to identify possible improvements in inventory management across DE&S and to assist in filling short term skill gaps. Additional measures will be taken as required.

As at 1 March 2013, 356 inventory management personnel were qualified at either the ‘practitioner’ or ‘expert’ level.

[holding answer 7 March 2013]: Defence strategy represents the Ministry of Defence's overall contribution to national strategy, setting out the most appropriate ways of achieving long-term policy objectives within the resources available. Preparations for the next Strategic Defence and Security Review in 2015, which will be co-ordinated by the National Security Council and Cabinet Office, are already under way within MOD. This includes a broad programme of activity overseen by the Defence Strategy Group, co-chaired by the Permanent Under-Secretary and the Chief of Defence Staff, that is examining possible changes in the future strategic context, considering the policy options in response, and testing the continued validity of Future Force 2020. This work is being led and co-ordinated by a core team of 10 personnel in the Defence Strategy and Priorities branch, but involves a wider range of staff and organisations within the Head Office and across MOD. It also features close engagement with other Government Departments.

[holding answer 7 March 2013]: Defence strategy represents the Ministry of Defence's overall contribution to national strategy, setting out the most appropriate ways of achieving long-term policy objectives within the resources available. Preparations for the next Strategic Defence and Security Review in 2015, which will be co-ordinated by the National Security Council and Cabinet Office, are already under way within MOD. This includes a broad programme of activity overseen by the Defence Strategy Group, co-chaired by the Permanent Under-Secretary and the Chief of Defence Staff, that is examining possible changes in the future strategic context, considering the policy options in response, and testing the continued validity of Future Force 2020. This work is being led and co-ordinated by a core team of 10 personnel in the Defence Strategy and Priorities branch, but involves a wider range of staff and organisations within the Head Office and across MOD. It also features close engagement with other Government Departments.

The information is not held in the format requested. The following table shows the number of civilian leavers, by each of the Department's top level budget (TLB) areas and trading funds since April 2010. This information is available from the quarterly civilian personnel report, outflow on the DASA website:

www.dasa.mod.uk

The figures requested are shown in the following table:

With regard to posts moving from London to the regions, this information is not held in the format requested.

Under Lord Levene's Defence Reform recommendations to create a smaller, more strategic head office and delegate more authority to empowered service commands we are transferring over 100, predominantly military, posts from Main Building in Whitehall to the Fleet, Land, and Air Headquarters in Portsmouth, Andover, and High Wycombe and to the new Joint Force Command Headquarters in Northwood in north London. This is part of the wider reduction in the size of the Head Office from around 2,400 people in 2011-12 to fewer than 1,600 in 2015-16.

While the Ministry of Defence centrally maintains details of its many thousands of property assets in the UK and overseas, all of the requested information for each could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

An Infrastructure Management System is currently being developed by the Defence Infrastructure Organisation that will assist in the more effective management of the Defence estate by providing better information about built and infrastructure assets.

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) is one of the UK's largest employers and landowners conducting one of the most complex operations in the country. In addition to recruiting, training, paying, equipping and supplying the armed forces, supporting the delivery of military capability in the field also includes: providing domestic accommodation; providing primary and specialist medical care; running schools and colleges; providing welfare services; operating complex industrial and research facilities; and running a national police force and guard service.

As a public body we are also bound by the obligations of the Official Secrets Act, the Public Records Act and the Freedom of Information Act. All functions undertaken by military and civilian personnel are undertaken within the relevant national statutory and regulatory frameworks and it is simply not possible to estimate centrally how much time is attributable specifically to fulfilling statutory obligations.

As of 1 October 2012 there were 1,310 members of staff in the East Riding of Yorkshire Unitary Authority and 110 in Kingston upon Hull Unitary Authority. These figures include both civilian and service personnel.

The following table details the number of civilian staff and their grade or pay band employed in the Ministry of Defence as at 1 April in each of the last five years, and at 1 January 2013.

The numbers above are on a full-time equivalent basis.

The senior civil service (SCS) numbers includes those outside the SCS, who are of equivalent grade, primarily senior medical specialists.

Other non industrials include industrial personnel on temporary promotion to non-industrial grades and personnel for whom no grade information is available.

Where rounding has been used, totals and sub-totals have been rounded separately and so may not equal the sums of their rounded parts.

When rounding to the nearest 10, numbers ending in five have been rounded to the nearest multiple of 20 to prevent systematic bias.

The above information is available from the DASA Quarterly Civilian Personnel Report which can be found at:

www.dasa.mod.uk

The Defence Infrastructure Organisation Byelaws Review Team consists of five staff at an annual cost of £160,000. There are no specific qualifications required for these positions. The team are additionally supported by Ministry of Defence legal advisers.

The Ministry of Defence does not currently have any presence in Niger, Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Western Sahara, or Chad.

Around 50 Defence personnel are currently either permanently based or deployed on an enduring basis in Nigeria, Algeria, Libya, Sudan, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, and Kenya, in Defence sections in our high commissions and embassies, in UN and other missions, and on a variety of defence engagement tasks.

The UK operates a permanent British Army Training Unit in Kenya (BATUK) responsible for managing British Army training in country. Its manning fluctuates depending on training activities, but is usually around 150.

We currently have around 20 personnel deployed in Bamako (Mali) under the auspices of Op Newcombe. Numbers fluctuate on a daily basis.

The results of the October 2012 Ministry of Defence staff survey will be placed in the Library of the House on 31 January 2013 when the results are published on our website.

The cost of the survey for the Ministry of Defence and participating agencies will be approximately £120,000. The exact cost will be known in the spring. The MOD has participated in the Civil Service People Survey carried out across the entire civil service since 2009. The survey is carried out by ORC International Ltd. This approach, which is managed by the Cabinet Office, delivers strong efficiencies through economies of scale by eliminating previously duplicated effort and project management and realises strong value for money.

The cost of the 2012 survey across the civil service is expected to be 63% lower than what was spent separately by Departments and agencies in 2008-09 on their own staff surveys.

The 2006 White Paper entitled The Future of the UK Independent Nuclear Deterrent (Cm 6994) was produced by the Deterrent Options Policy Group, which consisted of around 10 people. This group consulted widely within the Ministry of Defence, other Government Departments and the wider stakeholder community.

The Ministry of Defence keeps under regular review the personnel requirements for staff with specialist electronic intelligence (ELINT) skills and continues to take the necessary steps to ensure that the requirement for future years will be met.