Asked by: Christine Jardine (Liberal Democrat - Edinburgh West)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much his Department spent on recruitment consultants in each of the last three years.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
Although examples will exist for specific roles, the Department does not, in general, make use of external recruitment consultants to fill fulltime roles and the information requested is not centrally held.
Asked by: Christine Jardine (Liberal Democrat - Edinburgh West)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much his Department has spent on head-hunters in each of the last three years.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The requested information is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Christine Jardine (Liberal Democrat - Edinburgh West)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the cost to the public purse has been of Ministerial severance pay in his Department in each year since 1 January 2016.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
Under the Ministerial and Other Pensions and Salaries Act 1991, eligible Ministers who leave office are entitled to a one off payment equivalent to one quarter of their annual salary at the point at which they leave Government.
This applies only where a Minister is under 65 and is not appointed to a Ministerial office within three weeks of leaving Government.
Asked by: Christine Jardine (Liberal Democrat - Edinburgh West)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking to tackle sexual harassment in the Armed Forces.
Answered by Leo Docherty - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)
Defence has a Zero Tolerance Policy for unacceptable behaviour, including sexual harassment and sexual offences. Any incidents will be investigated, and appropriate action taken. Anyone in the Armed Forces convicted of a sexual offence will be discharged. We continue to build more independence from the Chain of Command into the Service Complaints System around sexual service complaints, and we are establishing the Defence Serious Crime Unit.
Asked by: Christine Jardine (Liberal Democrat - Edinburgh West)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many underwater munitions disposals his Department has performed in each of the last five years in the waters surrounding the UK; and what proportion of those disposals involved (a) high order detonations and (b) low order deflagarations.
Answered by James Heappey
The Royal Navy’s Area Diving Groups, part of the Fleet Diving Squadron, are responsible for the disposal of underwater ordnance along the UK coastline, up to 12 nautical miles offshore. In the last five years they have conducted the following numbers of underwater demolitions involving High Order detonation of munitions at sea. No Low Order detonations were conducted.
Year | Operational tasks |
2020 | 4 |
2019 | 7 |
2018 | 13 |
2017 | 18 |
2016 | 18 |
Asked by: Christine Jardine (Liberal Democrat - Edinburgh West)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
What contingency plans his Department has put in place in the event that a private contractor to the Department collapses.
Answered by Guto Bebb
We regularly monitor the status of our most important suppliers and have robust, sustainable measures in place to reduce risk should there be a collapse.
We assess the legal and financial status of the company before placing a contract. We then monitor the financial health and performance of the company throughout the contract, taking action as appropriate.
Asked by: Christine Jardine (Liberal Democrat - Edinburgh West)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will set out the timeline for procuring the next generation of Royal Navy frigates.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
The Type 31e Frigate programme was launched on 7 September 2017, and is currently in its pre-procurement phase. We plan to formally start the competitive process in 2018 and award a single design and build contract in 2019, allowing us to trial and accept the first ship into service in 2023.
We awarded the £3.7 billion contract to manufacture the first batch of three Type 26 Frigates in June 2017 and cut steel on the first ship, HMS GLASGOW, in July. We expect HMS GLASGOW to be structurally complete in the early 2020s, and to enter service in the mid-2020s.
The procurement of the remaining five Type 26 Frigates will be subject to a separate approval and contract, which on current plans will be in the early 2020s.