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Ministry of Defence

Answer

Mr. Keetch: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the age profile is of the staff of (a) his Department's Chief Scientific Advisor and (b) the maintenance contractor SERCO who possess the qualifications necessary to (i) maintain the design intent of the current nuclear warheads and (ii) design the next generation of warheads; and if he will make a statement. [170338] Mr. Ingram: There are several staff working in the Chief Scientific Adviser's area in support of, and providing advice on the nuclear weapons programme, a number of whom have previously worked at AWE. However, with the exception of one AWE secondee, they are not "qualified" to conduct nuclear warhead design work, since only AWE plc, the design authority under the contract, can "qualify" people to undertake such work. MOD's contract for the management and operation of AWE sites is with AWE Management Limited (AWE ML), a consortium of three equal partners, including SERCO. Responsibility for the day-to-day management of AWE sites is delegated to a separate company, AWE plc, which is owned by AWE ML. It is not possible to categorise the capabilities of qualified AWE plc personnel in the way requested. However, the following table provides data on those AWE plc employees engaged in maintaining the relevant research and development capabilities who are formally qualified to degree level and above. _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Age range Percentage age of total formally qualified Numbers employed in R and D who are and employed in R and D qualified to degree level and above 20 to 30 26 212 31 to 40 34 282 41 to 50 23 194 51 to 60 15 121 60 plus 2 21 Total 100 830 _________________________________________________________________________________________________.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

421 c131-2W; 170338

Session

2003-04

Subjects

Age AWE Nuclear weapons Repairs and maintenance Research Scientists

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk