Asked by: Jamie Stone (Liberal Democrat - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what proportion of service personnel undertake the Annual Mental Fitness Brief each year.
Answered by Leo Docherty - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)
From 11 October 2021, the Annual Mental Fitness Brief has been mandated for all Armed Forces Personnel. The brief covers health and wellbeing, stress management, how to transform stress into mental resilience and where personnel can seek appropriate help.
Asked by: Jamie Stone (Liberal Democrat - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many armed forces personnel who received assessments due to the impact of being involved with in the trial of Ajax tanks were assessed as requiring treatment; and what treatments were considered necessary.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
I refer the hon. Member to HCWS260, the Written Statement I laid in this House on Monday 6 September, and also the oral statement I made on Wednesday 9 September, which provided a comprehensive update on the Armoured Cavalry (Ajax) programme. The assessments are ongoing and I will provide an update to the House in due course.
Asked by: Jamie Stone (Liberal Democrat - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what protections for biodiversity are in place on land owned by the Ministry of Defence.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
The Ministry of Defence is committed to protecting and enhancing the biodiversity on the Defence Estate and delivering on its statutory obligations and Government policy commitments.
Each project, plan or programme that may impact biodiversity is subject to a sustainability appraisal process which identifies, assesses and manages potential biodiversity issues, constraints and opportunities.
Asked by: Jamie Stone (Liberal Democrat - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to offset emissions produced by the Ministry of Defence's land use.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
The Ministry of Defence (MOD) is committed to supporting the Government's commitment to Net Zero Green House Gas Emissions by 2050. Over the last 10 years we have already reduced emissions across our UK estate by 50%.
We acknowledge we need to go further and in March this year, MOD launched the Defence Climate Change and Sustainability Strategic Approach, which sets out the ambition, principles and the methods needed for UK Defence to meet the challenge of climate change, enhance our sustainably activities and lower our emissions.
MOD is initially prioritising energy efficiency and decarbonisation initiatives to lower our carbon footprint across our estate. A natural capital register and modelling tools are being developed for the Defence estate which includes an assessment of the available carbon sequestration opportunities.
Asked by: Jamie Stone (Liberal Democrat - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking to help ensure that his Department will meet the 2050 net zero target using the same criteria as other Government departments.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
The Ministry of Defence (MOD) is committed to supporting the Government's commitment to Net Zero Green House Gas Emissions by 2050. Over the last 10 years we have already reduced emissions across our UK estate by 50%.
We acknowledge we need to go further and in March this year, MOD launched the Defence Climate Change and Sustainability Strategic Approach, which sets out the ambition, principles and the methods needed for UK Defence to meet the challenge of climate change, enhance our sustainably activities and lower our emissions.
MOD is initially prioritising energy efficiency and decarbonisation initiatives to lower our carbon footprint across our estate. A natural capital register and modelling tools are being developed for the Defence estate which includes an assessment of the available carbon sequestration opportunities.
Asked by: Jamie Stone (Liberal Democrat - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what policies his Department has to ensure the protection of biodiversity during the sale of land by the Ministry of Defence.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
In recognition of Government policies in support of sustainability and biodiversity on the Ministry of Defence estate, Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) applies the same supporting principles to the sale of its land assets.
DIO will investigate the biodiversity value of a site in disposal and engage with Local Authorities and other agencies to agree protection measures and potential gains. This is in accordance with National and Local Planning policies.
Asked by: Jamie Stone (Liberal Democrat - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many units of Alford Technologies’ Vulcan UXO clearance system his Department has purchased in each of the last ten years.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
The numbers of Vulcan Unexploded Ordnance clearance systems purchased in each of the last ten calendar years from Alford Technologies Limited are provided in the following table:
Year | Quantity of Systems purchased |
2011 | 110 |
2012 | 80 |
2013 | 108 |
2014 | 38 |
2015 | 66 |
2016 | 0 |
2017 | 76 |
2018 | 104 |
2019 | 0 |
2020 | 32 |
Total | 614 |
Asked by: Jamie Stone (Liberal Democrat - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many underwater munitions disposals his Department has performed in the waters surrounding the UK in each of the last ten years; and what proportion of those disposals involved (a) high order detonations and (b) low order deflagrations.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
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 ten 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 |
2015 | 8 |
2014 | 5 |
2013 | 20 |
2012 | 9 |
2011 | 5 |
Asked by: Jamie Stone (Liberal Democrat - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many and what proportion of Commonwealth nationals serving in the armed forces have served in the armed forces for four or more years.
Answered by Leo Docherty - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)
The table below provides the number and proportion of Commonwealth nationals in the trained and trade trained Regular Armed Forces as at 1 January 2021, who have served four or more years. Nepal is not a member of the Commonwealth so the data does not include Nepalese citizens including Gurkhas.
Table 1: The strength of UK trained and trade trained1 Regulars2 with a Commonwealth3 Nationality4,5 having served for 4 or more years6, as at 1 Jan 2021.
| Total number of Commonwealth Service Personnel | Number of Trained and Trade Trained Regular Commonwealth personnel who have served 4 or more years | Which represents as a proportion of all Trained and Trade Trained Regular Commonwealth Personnel 7 |
All Services | 5,080 | 2,200 | 43% |
Royal Navy/Royal Marines | 860 | 350 | 41% |
Army | 4070 | 1,770 | 44% |
RAF | 140 | 70 | 50% |
Caveats/Notes:
1. The table above includes Army personnel that are defined as Trade Trained and RAF and Royal Navy personnel that are defined as Trained. Within the Army from 1 October 2016, UK regular forces and Gurkha personnel who have completed both their Phase 1 (basic service training) and Phase 2 training (trade training), are considered trade trained personnel. Within the Royal Navy and RAF ‘Trained’ personnel have completed both Phase 1 and Phase 2 training.
2.UK Regulars comprise Full time Service personnel, including Nursing Services, but excluding Full Time Reserve Service (FTRS) personnel, Gurkhas, mobilised Reservists, Military Provost Guard Service (MPGS), Locally Engaged Personnel (LEP), Non Regular Permanent Staff (NRPS), High Readiness Reserve (HRR) and Expeditionary Forces Institute (EFI) personnel.
3.The Commonwealth grouping includes all personnel with a nationality, as recorded on JPA at the time of publication, that is reported in the British Nationality Act 1981, SCHEDULE 3 (Countries Whose Citizens are Commonwealth Citizens), further information of which is available at http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1981/61/schedule/3. On the 12th November 2015, under the British Nationality (The Gambia) Order 2015, the Gambia was omitted from the Commonwealth. Figures relating to personnel with a nationality, as recorded on JPA, of Gambian are still included in the Irish and Commonwealth grouping. For further information see: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2015/1771/contents/made
4.As nationality is a non-mandatory field, nationality is as currently recorded and not necessarily the same as at birth or when recruited. Therefore, Commonwealth personnel who have changed nationality (for example naturalised to a British Citizen) may or may not have updated their JPA record.
5. The question has requested Commonwealth personnel only. This will differ from the Biannual Diversity Statistics, which provides a combined nationality breakdown of Commonwealth and Irish.
6.Length of service (LoS) was calculated using entry date. There are known problems with the entry date information extracted from JPA. If personnel have transferred from one service to another service, have served under an alternative assignment type (e.g. Reserve Forces), are re-entrants or have transferred from Other Ranks to Officers, their entry date may correspond to any of these events. The resulting LoS may reflect their current period of service, include previous service, or it may be the time that has elapsed since they first joined the armed forces, irrespective of any break in service. It will invariably include time spent on untrained strength.
7. These figures may not capture the full cohort of Commonwealth personnel who joined the UK Regular Forces, as a number of personnel may have changed from a Commonwealth nationality to a British nationality.
8. Figures in this table have been rounded to the nearest 10, though numbers ending in a “5” have been rounded to the nearest multiple of 20 to prevent the systematic bias caused by always rounding numbers upwards.
Asked by: Jamie Stone (Liberal Democrat - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent assessment he made of the potential merits of waiving the cost of fees for Leave to Remain for Commonwealth service leavers and their families.
Answered by Leo Docherty - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)
The Secretary of State greatly values the commitment and dedication of all those serving in our armed forces, including those from the Commonwealth and Nepal. He understands the financial impact visa fees have on Non-UK Service Personnel wishing to remain in the UK after their service and that is why he and the Home Secretary launched a public consultation on this issue on 26 May 2021. The consultation is seeking views on a policy proposal for waiving settlement costs for non-UK service personnel. The consultation will run for six weeks and will close on 7 July 2021.