Asked by: James Sunderland (Conservative - Bracknell)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether entry requirements for officer direct entry at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst have changed in the last two years.
Answered by Andrew Murrison
The entry requirement for the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (RMAS) is a pass at the Army Officer Selection Board Main Board. The standard required to commission from RMAS into the British Army has not changed.
AOSB recently reviewed its assessment methodology following a study which identified that RMAS was able to improve the practical performance of Officer Cadets to a greater extent than had previously been assumed. This has resulted in a number of candidates who would previously have narrowly missed the mark being given the opportunity to commence training. These candidates are categorised as 'President's Risks'.
Those who do not meet the required standard after 12 months training at RMAS will not commission. A trainability study will assess the correlation of President's Risk Candidates and their performance at RMAS to inform future selection criteria.
Asked by: James Sunderland (Conservative - Bracknell)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether armed forces personnel are entitled to use local NHS care at their home residence whilst off duty; and whether his Department has issued guidance to armed forces personnel on what steps to take if care is refused by local NHS services.
Answered by Andrew Murrison
The Defence Medical Services (DMS) provide an occupationally focused primary healthcare service for Armed Forces personnel. Secondary healthcare is provided by the NHS: the DMS has influence on NHS commissioning policy and delivery, to ensure that specific Defence requirements are met.
Armed Forces personnel can, by exception, access urgent NHS primary care near their home residence while off-duty, as a temporary registered patient, if they are unfit to travel to a DMS facility to make sure they get the healthcare support they need.
Personnel should contact their registered DMS medical facility in the first instance to discuss their care needs, and to inform of the intention to access NHS services. Their DMS GP will continue to be their main registered GP and it is important that personnel return to using DMS services as soon as possible.
Personnel can also access NHS out of hours services such as going to A&E in a medical emergency, using the 111 service or going to an urgent care service such as a walk-in centre or minor injuries unit.
Armed Forces personnel should contact their DMS medical facility, as their care co-ordinator, about any declined access to UK healthcare services to which they are entitled.
Asked by: James Sunderland (Conservative - Bracknell)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to service families accommodation at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst without heating, what steps he is taking to improve the maintenance contract at that academy.
Answered by Alex Chalk
The Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) have directed the Future Defence Infrastructure Services, accommodation suppliers in the South East region (Pinnacle and VIVO) to provide Rectification Plans, as performance has been significantly below acceptable levels.
DIO Officials are working with Vivo and Pinnacle to accelerate responses to the heating outages for families at the Royal Military Academy. Families will be contacted by a qualified engineer to support the swift diagnosis of faults and to enable remote fixes, if possible, and VIVO are increasing the number of engineers available to undertake urgent works.
Asked by: James Sunderland (Conservative - Bracknell)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on the effectiveness of the Veterans' Health Innovation Fund.
Answered by Leo Docherty
I am pleased to announce that the £5 million Veterans’ Health Innovation Fund launched on 4 July and will close on 31 August.
We are working with the Defence and Security Accelerator on the Fund’s open competition, to explore how the marketplace can offer to help advance better health outcomes for veterans.