Paddy Tipping queries use of MoD firing range

Paddy Tipping has received a Written Answer to his question:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many of the 14 allocated days have been used in training for the firing of the 120 mm Challenger tanks at the Warcop range in each year since 2001.

Answer:None

He also asked:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what payments have been made to the Strathmore Estates for training use of their land within the Warcop byelawed area in each year since 2001.

To which he received the classic evasion:

Payments are made by this Department to the Strathmore Estate according to the licence agreement, and reviewed every three years. I am unable to provide the amounts as this would prejudice our position commercially with other landowners in the area with whom we have similar agreements.

This really irritates me - the government uses the 'commercially sensitive' shield to hide behind in all sort of areas, including far more important ones such as how much IT systems have cost or are going to cost the taxpayer. Part of ensuring a strong democracy is that we, the public, know what the government spend our money on. If they won't tell us, how can we decide if they are doing a good job or not?

As the Warcop range isn't in the Sherwood constituency, and Paddy Tipping has little interest in defense issues, presumably this is a rambling issue (Padding Tipping is Vice-President of the Rambling Association) - the Army have fenced off a good chunk of Cumbria, and don't appear to be actually doing anything with it.