Asked by: James Gray (Conservative - North Wiltshire)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what discussions he has had with (a) the United States and (b) Australia on the potential merits of expanding Pillar II of the AUKUS agreement to include Canada.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Shadow Secretary of State for Defence
The Defence Secretary has regular, routine engagements with his US and Australia counterparts on a number of topics related to AUKUS, including potential collaborators on individual Pillar 2 projects, and will continue to do so.
Asked by: James Gray (Conservative - North Wiltshire)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, which pensions his Department has responsibility for are counted towards the NATO target of spending two percent of GDP on defence; and what the value of such pension payments was in the latest period for which figures are available.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Shadow Secretary of State for Defence
Under NATO guidance pensions for defence personnel form part of qualifying defence spend. This includes both military pensions and Ministry of Defence civil servants. For Financial Year 2022-23, this is £1,523 million and £123 million respectively.
Asked by: James Gray (Conservative - North Wiltshire)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much VAT was paid by his Department to HM Treasury in each of the last three years; whether such payments are notional balance sheet transactions ; and whether such payment count towards the NATO target of 2 percent of GDP spent on defence.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Shadow Secretary of State for Defence
The table below provides details of VAT paid and not recovered by MOD’s main VAT registration for the previous three financial years (FY).
VAT paid by HMRC and not recovered £million | |
FY20/21 | 3,026 |
FY21/22 | 3,143 |
FY22/23 | 3,607 |
Total | 9,776 |
These payments are not notional balance sheet transactions. They are are actual cash payments made by MOD and are accordingly considered part of the Department’s spend for NATO purposes.
Asked by: James Gray (Conservative - North Wiltshire)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 26 February 2024 to Question 13866 on Chinook Helicopters: Accidents, what personal information is held about third party individuals; and whether those individuals are alive.
Answered by Andrew Murrison
The closed records held at The National Archives contain personal information relating to third party individuals involved with the board of inquiry and of the next of kin.
It is assumed that all individuals are alive and the early release of this information would breach their data protection rights. This will be reconsidered during the Ministry of Defence’s business as usual activity to renew the Retention Instrument associated with the closed records due to take place in 2029.
Asked by: James Gray (Conservative - North Wiltshire)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of removing the 100 year classification of documents relating to the 1994 Mull of Kintyre Chinook disaster.
Answered by Andrew Murrison
The closed records held at The National Archives contain personal information relating to 3rd party individuals. The early release of this information would breach those individuals’ data protection rights. As part of MOD’s business as usual activity to renew the Retention Instrument associated with these closed records, an assessment of the potential merit of removing the 100-year closure status is due to take place in 2029.
Asked by: James Gray (Conservative - North Wiltshire)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether he has had discussions with Cabinet colleagues on the potential merits of increasing armed forces pay in line with inflation; and whether he has made a comparative assessment of the wages of armed forces staff and the wages of public service who have taken part in strikes in 2022-2023 that have been covered by the armed forces.
Answered by Andrew Murrison
The annual remit for the Armed Forces’ Pay Review Body (AFPRB) and Defence’s annual affordability for the AFPRB’s annual pay award are both agreed with Ministerial colleagues.
Last year, the independent AFPRB recommended a 3.75% uplift in pay and other targeted measures, including a 1% cap on accommodation charges. At the same time, the independent Senior Salaries Review Body (SSRB) recommended a 3.5% award to the most senior officers at two-Star rank and above. All these recommendations were accepted in full. Evidence for this year has been provided to both the AFPRB and SSRB and we are awaiting their 2023 reports.
In determining their recommendations, the pay review bodies operate within their respective remits. For the AFPRB, this explicitly includes comparative assessments with other workforces as part of their consideration of the need for the pay of the Armed Forces to be broadly comparable with pay levels in civilian life.
Asked by: James Gray (Conservative - North Wiltshire)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent assessment she has made of the potential contribution of the Arctic and Antarctic to British foreign policy objectives.
Answered by Amanda Milling
As the nearest neighbour to the Arctic, we remain committed to working in partnership with our allied Arctic States to maintain the region as one of low tension, while continuing to make a significant contribution to Arctic science, security and environmental protection.
The UK is committed to upholding and strengthening the Antarctic Treaty System and maintaining our leadership on Antarctic policy and science, especially on the implications of climate change.
Asked by: James Gray (Conservative - North Wiltshire)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, until what date HIV positive status was a bar to military service; on what evidence was that bar to military service based; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Leo Docherty
On 21 June 2022, the HIV positive status bar was lifted with amendments being made to the Joint Service Manual of Medical Fitness (Leaflet 6-7-7 of Joint Service Publication 950).
The original policy and its amendment were based on specialist medical opinion. This included consideration of the risk to the individual if they were denied essential medication or access to specialist medical services due to operational circumstances; the risk to everyone operating in the military exposure prone environment in the UK and overseas; and the cost-benefit of training an individual with a chronic medical condition, that would previously have attracted career restrictions in a fixed liability organisation.
Asked by: James Gray (Conservative - North Wiltshire)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many HIV positive service people were dismissed from the (a) Army, (b) Navy and (c) Air force in the latest period for which figures are available.
Answered by Leo Docherty
Between 1 April 2011 and 31 March 2022, 30 UK Regular Armed Forces personnel were medically discharged with an ICD-10 code for HIV cited as the principal or contributory cause. Both principal and contributory causes have been included as it is possible for personnel to be medically discharged for multiple medical reasons. Of the 30 personnel, 24 were Army personnel. The number of Royal Navy and RAF personnel were fewer than five respectively.
Figures include trained and untrained UK Regular personnel; Reserve personnel are excluded. Army Regular personnel include Gurkha and the Military Provost Guard Service. Royal Navy personnel includes both Royal Navy and Royal Marines. In line with Joint Service Publication 200, figures fewer than five have been suppressed.
Asked by: James Gray (Conservative - North Wiltshire)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether recompense has been made to those who lost their pensions, medals and status as a result of being dishonourably discharged due to their sexual orientation during 1980-2000.
Answered by Leo Docherty
The Ministry of Defence and the Office for Veterans’ Affairs within the Cabinet Office are jointly commissioning an independent review to better understand the impacts and implications of the pre 2000 ban on homosexuals serving in the Armed Forces. The review underlines Defence’s unwavering commitment to understanding how best to support its veteran and LGBT+ community. Defence recognises and accepts that its historic policies were unacceptable and that its LGBT+ veteran community suffered as a consequence.
The scope of those dishonourably discharged due to their sexual orientation is currently unknown and a cross-departmental programme of work is underway to better understand the size of the affected cohort. Defence expects the review will provide further context and insights into the lived experience of our veteran community and allow us to take effective and genuine steps towards a more inclusive future for all.
Work is currently underway to appoint an independent review chair and the independent review is expected to commence in the near future following their appointment. The independent review chair and the terms of reference for the review will be announced in due course. The independent review team can be contacted via email: Lgbtveteransreview@cabinetoffice.gov.uk
Defence is proactively working with the Home Office to enable more veterans to apply for a disregard of service convictions relating to sexuality. We have also introduced policy allowing veterans to apply for restoration of medals forfeited upon dismissal based on sexuality. To date, seven applications have been received and one veteran has had their medals restored. The other cases remain under review in light of the recent Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022. Every case has required careful consideration of the circumstances and reference to contemporary records – some from several decades ago. We invite any personnel who were discharged from service due to their sexuality, to apply to have their forfeited medals restored by visiting: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/military-awards-commemorations
We take the wellbeing of all those who have served extremely seriously and are determined that the Armed Forces Covenant is upheld, meaning those who serve or have served in the Armed Forces, and their families, are treated fairly and all veterans, irrespective of when they served and how they left the Services are entitled to access the provisions of the Covenant. Former service personnel can access specialist medical care from the NHS, and every part of the UK now has a dedicated mental health service for veterans. Veterans can also call the Defence-funded 24-hour helpline, the Veterans’ Gateway, in times of need: https://www.veteransgateway.org.uk (0808 802 1212)