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 - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
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 - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
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 Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, for what reason his Department has not approved the draft Tax Information Exchange Agreement negotiated between the British Virgin Islands and Taiwan.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK Government is discussing, with the Government of the British Virgin Islands, the development of a draft Tax Information Exchange Arrangement between the British Virgin Islands and Taiwan. It would not be appropriate to comment on this publicly before these discussions have concluded. The UK Government welcomes the ongoing cooperation of the British Virgins Islands in this matter.
Asked by: James Sunderland (Conservative - Bracknell)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to (a) tackle gangs of armed shoplifters and (b) protect retail workers.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Since 2019, we have made available £340m to tackle serious violence. This investment includes the creation of 20 Violence Reduction Units and a Young Women and Girls Fund. These programmes are tackling gang activity and supporting young people who have been affected by it.
The Home Office continues to work closely with retail businesses, security representatives, trade associations and policing through the National Retail Crime Steering Group (NRCSG) to ensure the response to crime affecting retailers is as robust as it can be.
Katy Bourne, Police and Crime Commissioner for Sussex and Association of Police and Crime Commissioners Business Crime lead, has established a working group, Pegasus, to tackle serious organised retail crime. Pegasus will bring together policing and the retail sector to share intelligence and analyse serious organised retail crime, to assist police forces to respond to this crime.
Police recorded offences in England and Wales (excluding Devon and Cornwall) for shoplifting and all theft offences for year ending December 2022 are showing a fall of 12% and 13% respectively compared with the pre-pandemic period of March 2020.
The latest Crime Survey for England and Wales estimates for year ending March 2023 showed a 20% decrease in theft offences compared with estimates from the year ending March 2020 survey.
Asked by: James Sunderland (Conservative - Bracknell)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to World Malaria Day 2023, what steps his Department is taking to support the delivery of (a) malaria vaccines and (b) next-generation insecticide-treated nets to malaria endemic communities.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
The UK is supporting the delivery of vaccines for malaria through our £1.65 billion of core funding to Gavi, with UK funding contributing to Gavi's $156 million malaria vaccine programme which launched in January 2022. Our support to the Liverpool-based Innovative Vector Control Consortium (IVCC) has helped develop technologies that have averted up to 27 million cases of malaria, including the novel dual-action bed nets that kill mosquitoes resistant to traditional insecticides. The UK's pledge of £1 billion to the Global Fund's seventh replenishment will support the transition to and distribution of next-generation insecticide-treated nets to malaria endemic communities.
Asked by: James Sunderland (Conservative - Bracknell)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to support the UK’s research and development sector.
Answered by George Freeman
At the 2022 Autumn Statement, the Government reaffirmed the 2021 Spending Review pledge to increase public expenditure on R&D to £20 billion per annum by 2024/2025. This represents a cash increase of around a third compared to 21/22 and is the largest ever increase over an SR period.
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 - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
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 Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to clear the backlog of passport applications; and whether her Department is taking steps to install new infrastructure to speed up new applications.
Answered by Kevin Foster
HM Passport Office staffing numbers have been increased over 1200 since April 2021. This has delivered the operational capacity needed to process applications in record numbers, at approximately one million each month.
Across the first 6 months of 2022, HM Passport Office processed 97.7% of UK standard applications within 10 weeks.
Asked by: James Sunderland (Conservative - Bracknell)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to (a) clear the backlog of passport application cases and (b) ensure new applications are not delayed.
Answered by Kevin Foster
HM Passport Office staffing numbers have been increased over 1200 since April 2021. This has delivered the operational capacity needed to process applications in record numbers, at approximately one million each month.
Across the first 6 months of 2022, HM Passport Office processed 97.7% of UK standard applications within 10 weeks.
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 - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)
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.