To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many and what percentage of officers in each grade from 1 to 7 and overall in his Department are (a) women, (b) from ethnic minorities and (c) disabled people.

The numbers of women, disabled and ethnic minority staff in grade levels 1 to 7 and overall are given in the table. These figures exclude our executive agencies, the Meteorological Office and the Defence Research agency. I have asked the chief executives to write to the hon. Member.to International Atomic Energy Agency guidelines, those facilities due to be replaced by the new capital works programme at AWE Aldermaston.

The decommissioning programme for such facilities is in its initial stages and will take many years to complete. It is not yet therefore possible to determine the likely cost.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence on what date red commissioning is scheduled to be (a) started and (b) completed in (i) A89, (ii) A90 and (iii) A91 at AWE Aldermaston.

Red commissioning is scheduled to be started and completed as follows:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence on what date white commissioning was (a) started and (b) completed in (i) A89, (ii) A90 and (iii) A91 at AWE Aldermaston.

The information is as follows:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what is the current total estimated cost of the new capital works projects at AWE Aldermaston.

The current total estimated cost of the major programme of capital works at AWE Aldermaston referred to in the Commons Defence Select Committee Fifth Report 1988–89 is £1·2 billion at 1992–93 prices.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what representations he has received from the current work force at the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston in regard to the appointments of Brown and Root as management contractors.

It is Hunting-BRAE Limited and not Brown and Root (one of their parent organisations) who have been selected to operate the atomic weapons establishment. I have received no representations from the current workforce at Aldermaston concerning Brown and Root's involvement in the Hunting-BRAE consortium.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence (1) what assessment was made of the health and safety record of Brown and Root Inc. before awarding the contract to operate the Aldermaston nuclear weapons plant;(2) what assessment he made of the safety record of Hunting plc in advance of awarding the contract to manage the Atomic Weapons Establishment from 1 April.

A comprehensive and detailed assessment was carried out on all tenders received for the contract to operate AWE. Safety factors were extremely important in judging the competition. The fact that Hunting-BRAE were appointed as AWE operating contractor demonstrates that we have full confidence in their meeting our rigorous safety standards and that their parent organisations were judged to be fully acceptable in terms of the demanding safety role and responsibility at AWE.