Asked by: Lord Roberts of Llandudno (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to use Armed Forces personnel, and in particular any such personnel with specialist medical training, to help address the COVID-19 pandemic.
Answered by Baroness Goldie
Defence has a number of existing contingency plans in place to provide support to civil authorities, including to the NHS. Our personnel are already providing assistance in a number of capacities and this includes those with specialist medical training. Considering the likely additional call on military assistance to mitigate COVID-19 related staff absences in civil authorities, and the increasing volume of patients requiring treatment by the NHS, Defence is constantly monitoring and enhancing its plans, training and readiness in order to support additional requests.
Asked by: Lord Roberts of Llandudno (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to deploy armed forces to deal with civil disturbances after Brexit.
Answered by Earl Howe - Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
It is the responsibility of the police to manage public order. There are no plans to deploy Armed Forces personnel to deal with civil disturbances after Brexit. Defence remains closely engaged on contingency planning for a No Deal Brexit and has developed a plan to make around 3,500 Service personnel available to support the civil authorities if necessary.
Asked by: Lord Roberts of Llandudno (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what was the total cost of the recent air strikes carried out by the RAF in response to the chemical attack on Douma.
Answered by Earl Howe - Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
The costs of operational flying sorties are calculated on a net additional cost basis, i.e. they are based on those costs, over and above existing funding, that the Department would not have incurred but for the activity. As the aircraft involved were already deployed on operations, additional operating costs are not expected from the activity. No net additional costs for the weapons consumed will materialise unless the Department assesses that additional weapons must be procured to meet current planning assumptions.
Asked by: Lord Roberts of Llandudno (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government in which year cluster bombs were last sold by UK companies to the government of Saudi Arabia; and how many were sold in that year.
Answered by Earl Howe - Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
There were 500 UK-manufactured BL755 cluster munitions supplied to Saudi Arabia under a government-to-government agreement signed in 1986. The final delivery against this agreement was made in 1989.
Asked by: Lord Roberts of Llandudno (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what has been their total expenditure on military action in Syria and Iraq.
Answered by Earl Howe - Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
From August 2014 to 31 March 2016, the net additional costs of counter-Daesh activity in Iraq and Syria were £265 million. These costs were met from a combination of the HM Treasury Special Reserve and the Deployed Military Activity Pool (DMAP). The £265 million is split into £45 million in financial year 2014-15, and £220 million in financial year 2015-16.
This activity was to support UK military activity to degrade and ultimately defeat Daesh. It has included airstrikes in support of coalition ground operations and airborne intelligence gathering operations in Iraq and Syria, as well as helping to train the Iraqi Security Forces and moderate Syrian opposition.
Asked by: Lord Roberts of Llandudno (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many migrants have been rescued by British ships because they have found themselves in difficulty crossing the Mediterranean or Adriatic seas.
Answered by Earl Howe - Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
In total, British ships have rescued over 24,000 migrants in the Mediterranean since April 2015.
Asked by: Lord Roberts of Llandudno (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what part of the defence budget is allocated for military action in Syria.
Answered by Earl Howe - Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
In agreement with Her Majesty's Treasury, the Ministry of Defence draws upon the Special Reserve to meet the net additional costs for operations. As such, no part of the Defence budget is specifically allocated for military action in Syria.
Asked by: Lord Roberts of Llandudno (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what effort is being made to ensure that all armed service members are able to exercise their right to vote at the coming general election.
Answered by Lord Astor of Hever
The Ministry of Defence (MOD) takes a number of steps to ensure that those entitled to vote in the forthcoming general election are able to do so. These are detailed below.
We will shortly publish our annual instruction, which sets out the arrangements for electoral registration which will enable Service personnel and their spouses or civil partners to vote. This instruction will also set out the various options available to service personnel for casting their vote - in person, by post and by proxy - and guidance about how to register online.
The MOD will launch its annual information campaign to encourage Service personnel and their families to register to vote in conjunction with the Electoral Commission on 5 February 2015. All units have been tasked with holding a registration day on a convenient date during February or March of which information on electoral registration will be provided and personnel will have the opportunity to ask questions.
Together with the Electoral Commission, the MOD has engaged with a wide range of organisations, publications, websites and forums, including all three service families' federations and the HIVE network, to ensure that information about how to register reaches as many members of the service community as possible.
In the run up to the general election the British Forces Post Office will look to identify, extract and prioritise postal ballot papers on their way to and from locations overseas.
Asked by: Lord Roberts of Llandudno (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how much United Kingdom public funding BAE Systems has received in each of the last five financial years.
Answered by Lord Astor of Hever
A summary of the total amount of direct Ministry of Defence (MOD) payments for equipment and services attributed to BAE Systems companies for each of the last five financial years is as follows:
Expenditure with BAE Systems | |
Financial Year | Total Payments (£ million) |
2009-10 | 3,907 |
2010-11 | 3,263 |
2011-12 | 3,324 |
2012-13 | 3,378 |
2013-14 | To be published on 14 August on Gov.uk in the MOD's Finance Bulletin 1.01 – Trade, Industry & Contracts 2014 |
This analysis is based on payments made centrally by the MOD (some 95% of all payments). It does not therefore include payments made on behalf of other Government Departments, by the MOD's trading funds and Executive non-departmental public bodies, locally by the Department, through third parties such as prime contractors or other Government Departments, in relation to collaborative projects where the payments are made through international procurement agencies or overseas Governments or by Government Procurement Card.
Asked by: Lord Roberts of Llandudno (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many members of the armed forces are currently posted overseas.
Answered by Lord Astor of Hever
At 1 April 2014 there were approximately 18,070 Regular Armed Forces Personnel stationed overseas. This figure excludes Gurkhas, Full Time Reserve Service personnel and mobilised reservists.
Details of the locations by country and breakdown by Service are reported as part of our Quarterly Location Statistics and the latest report is available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/312590/qls_april_14.pdf
The next quarterly report is due to be published on 21 August 2014.