Asked by: Lord Stirrup (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to strengthen the resilience and readiness of supply chains for critical components used in uncrewed systems, including whether it maintains strategic reserves of key parts, and the criteria used to designate components as critical.
Answered by Lord Coaker - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Defence Industrial Strategy (DIS) sets out steps to develop a more resilient UK industrial base and policies capable of adapting and surging to address emerging priorities and demands. It details steps to enhance the resilience of the industrial base and improve the readiness of supply chains. This includes regularly assessing the scalability and resilience of production for all major procurements and strengthening supply chain data and enhancing resilience of critical and cross-cutting supply chains (page 76, policies 6.2.2.3 and 6.2.3.1). Central to this is the Defence Supply Chain Capability Programme (DSCCP) which is pivotal to ensuring operational readiness and resilience across Defence and has scoped the work required to address critical minerals and component supply within Defence.
The autonomous systems are identified as a priority sub-sector in the DIS which include combat air, complex weapons, directed energy weapons and next-generation land and maritime capabilities.
Asked by: Lord Stirrup (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the United Kingdom’s ability to surge domestic production of uncrewed systems in the event of a conflict, including the principal industrial, workforce and supply-chain constraints identified.
Answered by Lord Coaker - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Defence Industrial Strategy (DIS) sets out steps to develop a more resilient UK industrial base and policies capable of adapting and surging to address emerging priorities and demands. It details steps to enhance the resilience of the industrial base and improve the readiness of supply chains. This includes regularly assessing the scalability and resilience of production for all major procurements and strengthening supply chain data and enhancing resilience of critical and cross-cutting supply chains (page 76, policies 6.2.2.3 and 6.2.3.1). Central to this is the Defence Supply Chain Capability Programme (DSCCP) which is pivotal to ensuring operational readiness and resilience across Defence and has scoped the work required to address critical minerals and component supply within Defence.
The autonomous systems are identified as a priority sub-sector in the DIS which include combat air, complex weapons, directed energy weapons and next-generation land and maritime capabilities.
Asked by: Lord Stirrup (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to (1) identify, (2) monitor, and (3) assist, those veterans who were prescribed mefloquine while in the military before the introduction of recent safeguards.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
Any veteran presenting to his or her National Health Service general practitioner (GP) with side effects of any medication will receive care in line with national guidelines.
In making a clinical judgement about any patient, the GP will consider a number of factors, including relevant medical history, and will be treated appropriately. GP registration forms include a section to complete if a patient has served in the armed forces. Armed forces’ medical records can be accessed by NHS clinicians.