Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assistance his Department is providing to Libya following recent flooding.
Answered by James Heappey
Following the devastating flooding in Libya the Ministry of Defence has deployed personnel forward to assist the British Embassy Tripoli and assess what further support we might provide. We are positioning ourselves to support the wider humanitarian activity.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he has taken to address delays in the Forces flying training programme.
Answered by James Heappey
The Royal Air Force manages the UK Military Flying Training System (UKMFTS) on behalf of Defence and constantly reviews flying training pipeline performance. Measures are introduced as and when required in order to strike the best balance between pipeline supply and the frontline demand for new pilots. In addressing training delays, end-to-end training pipeline measures are considered, as well as working with allies and partners to examine whether UK pilots could be trained overseas and where we might pool our resources to mutual benefit.
To this end, in the last 12-months improvements across the UKMFTS flying training pipelines have included: increasing UKMFTS trainee throughput by improving syllabi, training delivery and course sequencing; while also maximising use of pilots being trained on the Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training programme in the USA, and a three year agreement with the International Flight Training School in Italy for provision of some training places.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he has taken to address shortfalls in military transport capabilities after the retirement of the C-130J Hercules fleet.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The acceleration of capability transition to Atlas has resulted in many of the operational capabilities delivered by the C-130J Hercules being transferred before the retirement of the Hercules fleet, most recently high altitude parachuting and the ability to operate from natural surfaces. Since the Hercules retired, additional niche capabilities have been released to service and crew training has begun; and trials are ongoing to further expand low level parachuting.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will make an estimate of the number of people serving in the armed forces who originate from outside the United Kingdom in the Commonwealth of Nations.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The hon. Member's question has been answered on the basis of numbers of Regular Service Personnel who have a Commonwealth nationality recorded on the Joint Personnel Administration (JPA) system.
Table 1. The strength of UK trade trained and untrained Regulars1 with a Commonwealth2 Nationality3,4 as at 1 April 2023.
Service | Count |
Royal Navy/Royal Marines | 890 |
Army | 4,160 |
Royal Air Force | 180 |
Grand Total | 5,230 |
Notes/Caveats:
1.UK Regulars comprise Full time Service personnel, including Nursing Services, but excluding Full Time Reserve Service (FTRS) personnel, Gurkhas, mobilised Reservists, Military Provost Guard Service (MPGS), Locally Engaged Personnel (LEP), Non Regular Permanent Staff (NRPS), High Readiness Reserve (HRR) and Expeditionary Forces Institute (EFI) personnel.
2.The Commonwealth grouping includes all personnel with a nationality, as recorded on the JPA system at the time of publication, that is reported in the British Nationality Act 1981, SCHEDULE 3 (Countries Whose Citizens are Commonwealth Citizens), further information of which is available at http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1981/61/schedule/3 Figures relating to personnel with a nationality, as recorded on JPA, of Gambian or Zimbabwean are currently still included in the Commonwealth grouping.
3.As nationality is a non-mandatory field, nationality is as currently recorded and not necessarily the same as at birth or when recruited. Therefore, Commonwealth personnel who have changed nationality (for example naturalised to a British Citizen) may or may not have updated their JPA record.
4. The question has requested Commonwealth personnel only. This will differ from the Biannual Diversity Statistics, which provides a combined nationality breakdown of Commonwealth and Irish.
These figures may not capture the full cohort of Commonwealth personnel who joined the UK Regular Forces, as a number of personnel may have changed from a Commonwealth nationality to a British nationality.
Figures in this table have been rounded to the nearest 10, though numbers ending in a “5” have been rounded to the nearest multiple of 20 to prevent the systematic bias caused by always rounding numbers upwards.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to tackle backlogs in service record requests.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The Ministry of Defence has taken several steps to improve the service and tackle the backlog for service record requests. These have included establishing a contract with an industry partner for the digital transfer of physical records; significant investment in additional staffing costs; and we are increasing the number of staff to deal with the backlog.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what estimate his Department has made of (a) how many service record requests are outstanding and (b) the expected waiting time for a service record claim.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
Serving and veteran requestors can generally expect to receive their service record within one month, in accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018 legal deadline. During June, 88% of requests were answered on time. There are currently 370 outstanding cases.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what discussions he has had with his New Zealand counterpart on defence cooperation in the Pacific region between the UK and New Zealand.
Answered by James Heappey
New Zealand is one of our closest partners in the Indo Pacific region and a staunch supporter of Ukraine. My right hon. Friend speaks regularly to his New Zealand counterpart on a whole range of issues including Pacific security, resilience and defence cooperation between our two countries. They last spoke in Singapore in June 2023.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will hold discussions with his Commonwealth counterparts on the prospect of an annual joint King’s Birthday parade.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
There are no plans to include other elements of the UK Armed Forces or Commonwealth participation in the annual King’s Birthday Parade.
The annual King’s Birthday Parade and the Trooping of the Colour is a parade and celebration that is unique to the Household Division – it does not include other elements of the British Army or the other Services. To include these, and potentially Commonwealth participation, would significantly change the historical and traditional aspects of this parade which has continued in essentially the same format for over a century.
Those Commonwealth countries that recognise His Majesty The King as their Head of State celebrate his official birthday in their own way. Apart from the annual King’s Birthday Parade and the Trooping of the Colour, the UK Armed Forces do not celebrate the Sovereign’s birthdays. However, alongside the rest of the nation, they have traditionally celebrated significant milestones in the Sovereign’s reign; the recent pageants for Her Late Majesty The Queen’s major anniversaries of her accession are examples which have included representatives of Commonwealth Armed Forces.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking to help ensure the cooperation of South East Asian nations in the UK's strategic and defence posture in the Indo-Pacific.
Answered by James Heappey
The Integrated Review Refresh described the Government's intention to put the Indo-Pacific Tilt on a long-term strategic footing. Defence relationships with South East Asian nations make an important contribution.
We are enhancing our engagement with the Five Power Defence Arrangements, are participating as observers in a number of ASEAN Expert Working Groups and have applied to join the ASEAN Defence Ministers Meeting Plus (ADMM+).
My Rt Hon Friend the Secretary of State for Ddefence met his Singaporean and Indonesian counterparts earlier this month. We have signed MOUs with Vietnam and Thailand and expanded our defence network to cover nine ASEAN members.
Our presence in Brunei, two offshore patrol vessels and other exercises and training contribute to stability across the region.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to protect and safeguard Falkland Island fishing stock in sovereign waters against unlicensed vessels.
Answered by James Heappey
The management of fishery protection in the Falkland Islands is the responsibility of the Falkland Island Government. British Forces South Atlantic Islands monitors maritime activity in Falkland Islands fishing conservation zones as part of its routine surveillance and monitoring of the waters around the Islands.