Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Widnes and Halewood)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many engineers there were in post in the (a) Royal Navy, (b) Army and (c) RAF in each year since 2010.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
This information is being withheld as it would prejudice the capability, security and effectiveness of UK Armed Forces, and could provide tactical advantage to hostile forces.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Widnes and Halewood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the required domestic capacity for vaccine production in the event of a pandemic.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
As we saw in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, ensuring that the United Kingdom’s population has ready access to pandemic vaccines as soon as they are available is critical to our ability to respond to and recover from any future pandemic. Whilst it is not possible to predict the cause of a pandemic in advance, the Government is investing in a range of capabilities to support the development and manufacture of pandemic vaccines when needed. These capabilities include:
¾ an advance purchase agreement with CSL Seqirus, which guarantees the UK’s population access to over 100 million doses of a pandemic influenza vaccine, entirely manufactured in the UK; and
¾ a partnership with Moderna, which aims to bring mRNA vaccine production capability to the UK and build resilience in the event of a new health emergency by investing in mRNA research and development.
In addition to these specific contractual arrangements, the Government is committed to making the UK one of the best places in the world to develop and manufacture new and innovative medicines, including vaccines. This is underpinned by broader support for the life sciences sector, including through the Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing Fund, which is a capital grant fund of up to £520 million over five years, from 2025 to 2030, to support UK health resilience and help ensure a robust response to potential future health emergencies.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Widnes and Halewood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many vaccine doses have been purchased for this year’s Flu campaign; and where they were sourced from.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
Information on the number of doses procured by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) is commercially sensitive.
The UKHSA secures sufficient volumes of flu vaccines for the children’s flu programme, to ensure that eligible children aged less than 18 years old who present for vaccination can be offered an appropriate vaccine. General practitioners and community pharmacists are directly responsible for ordering flu vaccines from suppliers, which are used to deliver the national flu programme to all other eligible groups.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Widnes and Halewood)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, which Departments were involved in discussions with Astra-Zeneca on the expansion of the vaccine production plant at Speke Merseyside.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
A cross-Government approach is taken to support the UK’s Life Sciences sector. This was the case for Government’s work to explore AstraZeneca’s potential investment in Speke, which involved No10, HM Treasury, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, the Department of Health and Social Care and the Department for Business and Trade.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Widnes and Halewood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 21 January 2025 to Question 24413 on Cardiovascular System: Health Services, for what reason his Department does not hold a breakdown of the data on vascular services for Warrington and Halton Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are no patients coded as waiting on the Referral to Treatment waiting list at the Warrington and Halton Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust for Vascular Surgery Service. This may be because the vascular service is being coded under a different treatment function, such as under general surgery service which would likely contain data for other services, as well as vascular. As such, the Department does not hold centrally any further breakdown of the data for the waiting time for a first appointment with vascular services at this trust.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Widnes and Halewood)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what proportion of officer cadets entering Sandhurst since 2015 attended a (a) state and (b) private school.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The table below shows the proportion of officer cadets entering Sandhurst in the last 10 years who attended independent and state schools.
This data has been provided from a Single Service source rather than official statistics produced by Defence Statistics as the latter do not collate this information.
Training Year | Independent Schools % | State Schools % |
2015-16 | 40 | 60 |
2016-17 | 42 | 58 |
2017-18 | 43 | 57 |
2018-19 | 48 | 52 |
2019-20 | 43 | 57 |
2020-21 | 44 | 56 |
2021-22 | 43 | 57 |
2022-23 | 41 | 59 |
2023-24 | 39 | 61 |
2024-25 | 39 | 61 |
Note:
Percentages have been rounded to the nearest whole number for presentational purposes.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Widnes and Halewood)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many working dogs the Army had in each year since 2010; and what the requirement was in each of those years.
Answered by Maria Eagle - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
As at 23 January 2025, there were 113 trained Military Working Dogs (MWD) in the British Army.
Determining whether an annual breakdown of MWD in the Army could be provided for each year since 2010 could only be achieved at a disproportionate cost due to information being held in different formats.
We would not routinely release the requirement for Military Working Animals due to reasons of operational security.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Widnes and Halewood)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, when he decided not to release the workforce requirement figures of Army regiments for reasons of operational security.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
In 2022, with Departmental support, the Army adopted a position not to release the workforce requirement of its internal organisations following the announcement of the Integrated Review and Future Soldier transformation.
I am happy to speak to my hon. Friend about this further.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Widnes and Halewood)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many agency nurses were employed in each acute hospital trust in the NHS Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care Board area in each year since 2019; and what proportion of all nurses they were.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The information requested is not available.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Widnes and Halewood)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many overseas army training exercises took place each year since 2010.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The Army invests significantly in skills, education and training for its people to build the problem-solving attributes, teamwork, resilience, intellect and creativity needed to be successful now and in the future.
The Army maintains an active overseas training programme that delivers against robust training objectives and supports UK defence engagement efforts overseas, as well as demonstrating our clear commitment to our Allies and partners.
The information requested is not held centrally, but I have provided a broad estimate of approximate figures. An illustrative estimate of the number of overseas training exercises conducted as part of the Overseas Training Exercise (OTX) programme is provided below. Please be aware however that some exercises are not included (such as those for specialist units) in the figures provided and the table represents only a partial picture. Information required to answer the question in full is not held centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Year | Number of Overseas Exercises held |
2010-2020 | 75 exercises per year. (estimated)* |
2020-2021 | 0 - due to COVID |
2021-2022 | 0 - due to COVID |
2022-2023 | 55 |
2023-2024 | 84 |
2024-2025 | 70 to be completed (estimated) |
*Detailed information on training activity prior to 2020 is no longer held in accordance with MOD data retention policy, as a result this figure is strictly an estimate of annual activity