Departmental Domestic Visits

Dr. Fox
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence on how many occasions he has visited each region of England in an official capacity in the last 15 months.

Mr. Hutton
Since I assumed the role of Secretary of State for Defence on 4 October 2008 and up to 24 March 2009,1 have made the following official visits to the English regions, as defined by the Government offices for the English regions:

----------------------------------------------------
|English region          |Number of official visits|
----------------------------------------------------
|North East              |1                        |
----------------------------------------------------
|North West              |2                        |
----------------------------------------------------
|Yorkshire and the Humber|1                        |
----------------------------------------------------
|East Midlands           |2                        |
----------------------------------------------------
|West Midlands           |1                        |
----------------------------------------------------
|South West              |5                        |
----------------------------------------------------
|South East              |9                        |
----------------------------------------------------
|London                  |12                       |
----------------------------------------------------
|East of England         |2                        |
----------------------------------------------------


There are inevitably a number of occasions where judgment has been applied as to whether the activity qualifies as a visit or official engagement, particularly in London.