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Written Question
Armed Forces and Veterans
Monday 25th March 2024

Asked by: Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking to ensure parity of support provided to (a) armed forces families and (b) veterans.

Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)

Much of the policy that impacts Service families and veterans within the UK is not owned by Defence. We work with Other Government Departments and the Devolved Administrations to ensure that, wherever possible, disadvantage associated with Service life is mitigated and effective support is provided; the Armed Forces Covenant is an especially important tool in this.


Written Question
Aviation: Fuels
Wednesday 28th June 2023

Asked by: Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of tendering sustainable aviation fuel contracts to help support UK production of sustainable aviation fuel.

Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) is working with the Department for Transport (DfT) to understand opportunities for Defence to support the UK Jet Zero Strategy. As a baseline, MOD procurement of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) will be led by the DfT SAF Mandate which intends to introduce a minimum percentage of sustainably derived fuel into aviation fuel sales from 2025, increasing to 10% by 2030, and continuing to increase beyond that point. The MOD is already seeking to procure SAF earlier than 2025, ahead of the mandate, in order to play its part in the migration towards a zero-carbon economy, including the desire to help create a domestic demand.


Written Question
Armed Forces: Families
Thursday 16th March 2023

Asked by: Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent progress his Department has made on implementing relevant recommendations of the report entitled Living in our shoes: understanding the needs of UK Armed Forces families, published on 30 June 2020.

Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)

The Government responded to the 110 recommendations of the comprehensive Living in Our Shoes report in March 2021 and committed to taking this forward through the Armed Forces Families Strategy. Since the publication of the Strategy in January 2022, a great deal of work has taken place to formulate the priorities under the Action Plan, to understand what changes can be delivered in the short, medium and longer term. As the Living in Our Shoes report acknowledged, many of the recommendations are ambitious and will be delivered towards the middle or latter part of the 10-year programme. However, there is much we can do now and indeed many of the recommendations from Living in Our Shoes have in effect already been delivered. An update on progress with the implementation of the Strategy can be found in the 2022 Armed Forces Covenant Annual Report, published on 19 December 2022: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/armed-forces-covenant-and-veterans-annual-report-2022


Written Question
Ministry of Defence: Nature Conservation
Monday 27th February 2023

Asked by: Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent assessment he has made of the potential role of his Department in helping to meet the Government's nature restoration targets.

Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice

As one of the UK's largest landowners the Ministry of Defence (MOD) is committed to contributing to the Government's nature restoration targets and enhancing biodiversity across its estate. Indeed, for 15 years it has funded a programme to improve the condition of Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) across the Defence estate to support the Governments targets for protected sites.

The MOD is developing a Nature Recovery Plan as required by the Greening Government Commitments. This will include an assessment of the potential future contribution to protected sites and other nature recovery targets. This plan will take account of the Defence imperative, current and future military requirements and where other land use contribute to Defence outputs such as carbon sequestration, renewable energy schemes and tenant farming.

The MOD will continue to engage with Nature Conservation Bodies and Nature Recovery Networks to complement the Department's approach.


Written Question
Armed Forces: Families
Tuesday 22nd November 2022

Asked by: Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many of the 106 partly and wholly accepted recommendations from the June 2020 Living in Our Shoes report have been implemented.

Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)

The Government responded to the 110 recommendations of the comprehensive Living in Our Shoes report in March 2021. This response, which set the baseline for the new Armed Forces Families Strategy, included input from the Devolved Administrations.

Since the publication of the Strategy in January of this year, a great deal of work has taken place to formulate the priorities under the Action Plan, to understand what changes can be delivered in the short, medium and longer term. As the Living in Our Shoes report acknowledged, many of the recommendations are ambitious and will be delivered towards the middle or latter part of the 10-year programme. However, there is much we can do now and indeed many of the recommendations from Living in Our Shoes have in effect already been delivered. There will be an update on progress with the implementation of the Strategy in the Armed Forces Covenant Annual Report, which is due to be published by the end of the calendar year.


Written Question
Armed Forces: Families
Monday 4th April 2022

Asked by: Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, when he will publish the action plan for the UK Armed Forces Families Strategy in order to implement the agreed recommendations of the independent report commissioned by his Department, Living in our shoes; and if he will make a statement.

Answered by Leo Docherty - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)

The Armed Forces (AF) Families Plan is derived from both the Defence Plan, and the AF Families Strategy (the latter of which was published on 19 January 2022). Like the AF Families Strategy, the AF Families Plan reflects - but is not exclusively driven by - the commitments in the Government's response to my hon. Friend's comprehensive and insightful report 'Living in our Shoes'. The Plan provides direction to those organisations with policy and/or delivery responsibilities related to Armed Forces families, wherever those families are based across the world. The Plan is dynamic and will be updated routinely to reflect changes in the wider context, and the continuous development and improvement in families-related policy and delivery. Although the Plan will provide essential coherence, it is important to note that many of the key actions within the Plan are already being delivered through existing measures and will now be absorbed within it. We will shortly be publishing a high level version of the plan [on gov.uk] and we will be including implementation updates through the Covenant Annual Report.


Written Question
Armed Forces: Families
Monday 5th July 2021

Asked by: Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

What steps he is taking to (a) raise awareness of and (b) regularly report on implementation of the recommendations of the June 2020 review commissioned by his Department, Living in our shoes, Understanding the needs of UK Armed Forces families.

Answered by Leo Docherty - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)

The Government response to the Living in Our Shoes report included a commitment to publish an ambitious new strategy for Armed Forces families.

The new strategy will provide a framework for measuring progress against the Living in Our Shoes recommendations, many of which are already being actioned.

Progress will be reported publicly through the Armed Forces Covenant annual report. The strategy will be published this autumn.


Written Question
Armoured Fighting Vehicles
Friday 5th February 2021

Asked by: Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking to develop a viable infantry fighting vehicle capability that meets the Army’s requirements to allow soldiers safely to enter, operate and be supported directly in close combat and high threat environments.

Answered by Jeremy Quin

Regular analysis conducted by the Army has confirmed the requirement for a range of armoured vehicles. This analysis includes a review of current and future threats and the environment in which vehicles are required to operate; work continues to focus on these areas to inform the Integrated Review.


Written Question
Eastern Europe: Armoured Fighting Vehicles
Friday 5th February 2021

Asked by: Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment his Department has made of the relative tactical mobility performance of the vehicles to be provided under the (a) Warrior Capability Sustainment and (b) Mechanised Infantry Vehicle programmes in weather and terrain in (i) Eastern Europe and (ii) the Baltics.

Answered by Jeremy Quin

Regular analysis conducted by the Army has confirmed the requirement for a range of armoured vehicles. This analysis includes a review of current and future threats and the environment in which vehicles are required to operate; work continues to focus on these areas to inform the Integrated Review.


Written Question
Armoured Fighting Vehicles
Wednesday 3rd February 2021

Asked by: Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps the Army’s armoured capability is taking to contribute to (a) enhanced Forward Presence and (b) NATO’s other conventional deterrence tasks.

Answered by James Heappey

The UK is firmly committed to the core NATO principles of collective deterrence and defence. Fifth Battalion The Rifles currently lead an Armoured Infantry Battlegroup in Estonia, as a Framework Nation for Enhanced Forward Presence. We currently provide Challenger 2, the Warrior Armoured Fighting Vehicle, and a suite of Armoured capabilities from the UK's Third Division to the multinational presence there. In addition, the UK contributes a Light Cavalry Squadron to the US led Enhanced Forward Presence Battlegroup in Poland, currently provided by the Queen's Dragoon Guards and reservists from the Royal Yeomanry.

The UK also makes one of the largest commitments to NATO's high-readiness forces, including the NATO Response Force, the Very High Readiness Joint Task Force, and we host the headquarters of the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps. NATO's conventional deterrence extends to the enhanced air policing mission and standing maritime groups as well - to which the UK is also a major contributor.