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Written Question
Ottawa Convention
Tuesday 1st April 2025

Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask His Majesty's Government what evaluation they have made of the ongoing utility of the Anti-Personnel Landmines Convention following recent developments in Eastern and Northern Europe.

Answered by Lord Coaker - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)

The Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction (also known as the Ottawa Convention) continues to play an important role in protecting civilians from harm caused by anti-personnel landmines. As a State Party to the Ottawa Convention, the UK’s commitment to it remains unwavering. We continue to encourage countries to join the Ottawa Convention, subscribe to its provisions; and discourage States from using anti-personnel landmines.


His Majesty's Government has noted that Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland have stated their intention to withdraw from the Ottawa Treaty. The UK acknowledges and shares concerns about the security environment in the region as a result of Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine. We also acknowledge that it is the sovereign right of those countries to make this decision. The UK will work to mitigate impacts on vital arms control and disarmament norms, while continuing to engage bilaterally on the actions States plan to take.


Written Question
Armed Forces: Housing
Tuesday 11th February 2025

Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask His Majesty's Government what was the cost per unit of the new single living accommodation block at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst; and where were the units manufactured.

Answered by Lord Coaker - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)

The new Single Living Accommodation (SLA) block at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (RMAS) provides 53 en-suite single bedspaces for Senior Ranks, with utilities, drying rooms, a kitchen and furnished communal space.

While this information is not held in the format requested, the overall contract value for the new SLA block at RMAS was £10.91 million; project cost capture does not split the cost into a single bedspace. The SLA block was manufactured in the UK.


Written Question
Defence: Nuclear Engineering
Monday 22nd April 2024

Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what estimate his Department has made of the number of graduate nuclear (a) engineers and (b) scientists required for the military nuclear programme.

Answered by James Cartlidge - Shadow Secretary of State for Defence

As announced in the Defence Nuclear Enterprise (DNE) Command Paper: Delivering the UK’s Nuclear Deterrent as a National Endeavor, the Department is investing to increase its intake of nuclear sector graduates by an additional 2,000 personnel over the next four years.

Of these 2,000, over 1,600 are for the DNE, with up to 70% of these graduates expected to join in engineering posts with the remainder in a range of supporting professions such as science (including physics, material science, nuclear science), commercial and finance.


Written Question
Armed Forces: Housing
Wednesday 13th March 2024

Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what lessons his Department has learned for the future provision of service accommodation from the Single Living Accommodation Modernisation project.

Answered by James Cartlidge - Shadow Secretary of State for Defence

Lessons learnt from the Single Living Accommodation Modernisation project include that it provided value for money through standardisation of design, and economies of scale through a managed pipeline of projects.

The Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) is continuing to realise these benefits through our Single Living Accommodation Programmatic Approach.

Standard designs have been developed in consultation with the front-line commands and industry partners.

Design layouts have been amended to provide better functional spaces in bedrooms and common areas.

The design of building fabric and services has been improved to achieve through life Net Zero Carbon requirements.


Written Question
Warships: Decommissioning
Monday 5th February 2024

Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the planned out of service dates are for HMS (a) Bulwark and (b) Albion; and whether it is his Department's policy to ensure both vessels remain operational up to that date.

Answered by James Cartlidge - Shadow Secretary of State for Defence

It remains the case that no final decisions have been made regarding the future of HMS ALBION and HMS BULWARK. On current plans, both platforms will retire from service by the end of 2034 as originally scheduled.


Written Question
Ukraine: Armed Conflict
Tuesday 24th October 2023

Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the military lessons to be learned from the conflict in Ukraine.

Answered by James Heappey

The Russia Ukraine Insights Hub identified insights at the strategic and operational level for Defence drawn from the UK's response to the war in Ukraine. These insights have informed subsequent Defence decision making. In addition to strategic insights, the single Services continue to identify lessons pertinent to their domains.


Written Question
Defence: Buildings
Tuesday 3rd October 2023

Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment his Department made of the potential prevalence of RAAC in buildings (a) owned and (b) occupied by (i) military and (ii) other departmental staff.

Answered by James Cartlidge - Shadow Secretary of State for Defence

For now, the focus is on bringing together the information we hold about the Government estate into one place. This work is being coordinated by the Office for Government Property.

Surveys are currently being conducted to identify buildings which may have been constructed with RAAC on Ministry of Defence (MOD) land.

We take safety extremely seriously and, based on our current information, RAAC has not traditionally been used by the MOD in the construction of domestic structure, and it is therefore highly unlikely that any Service Family Accommodation is affected. The majority of Single Living Accommodation was not constructed during the review period.


Written Question
Armed Forces: Motor Vehicles
Wednesday 22nd March 2023

Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many vehicles there are in his Department's white fleet (a) in total and (b) by individual service; and how many of the those vehicles are electric or hybrid.

Answered by Alex Chalk

The majority Ministry of Defence’s white fleet are leased through the Phoenix II Contract. There are a total of 15,422 vehicles leased under this contract. Of these, 728 are electric vehicles and 1,331 are hybrid vehicles. The table below sets out the numbers by Defence Organisation or Top Level Budget Holder (as of 15 March 2023):

Total Phoenix II Leased Vehicles

Air

3,166

Army

7,530

DE&S

214

DIO

520

DNO

10

DSA

20

HO

1

MDP

536

Navy

2,213

UKSC

1,212

Total

15,422


Written Question
Defence: Procurement
Monday 13th March 2023

Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

What steps he is taking to tackle supply chain constraints in defence procurement.

Answered by Alex Chalk

The Ministry of Defence takes the health and resilience of our supply chains seriously. The department has invested in a department-wide supply chain mapping programme, sharing intelligence and best practice on common critical supply chains and materials across Government and internationally.


Written Question
Antitank Missiles: Procurement
Thursday 12th January 2023

Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking to help ensure that NLAW anti-tank missile stocks will be replenished in early 2023.

Answered by Alex Chalk

To replenish the Next Generation Light Anti-Tank Weapon (NLAW) systems granted to Ukraine, the Ministry of Defence (MOD) secured around 500 units which will be delivered to the UK in 2023. The MOD has subsequently placed a separate contract for several thousand units to be delivered to the UK between 2024-2026.