To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many training flying hours crews of the (a) Hercules C-130, (b) Tristar, (c) VC-10 and (d) C-17 Globemaster aircraft flew on average in each year since 2001. (230175)

I will write to the hon. Member with the information requested.

Substantive answer from Bob Ainsworth to Liam Fox:

I undertook to write to you in answer to your Parliamentary Question on 27 October, (Official Report, column 639W) about training flying hours.

The majority of flying training is achieved during routine flying hours and all flying tasks include an element of aircrew training, therefore it is not possible to show average flying training hours separately. The average number of flying hours per year per crew since 2003 for the categories of aircraft requested are detailed in the table below. Average flying hours per year per crew are not available before 2003. All figures in the table have been rounded to the nearest five: