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 estimates he has made of the number of military personnel on standby to provide support to ports throughout the UK in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal.
Answered by Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton
The Ministry of Defence has not placed any additional personnel on standby to provide support to ports throughout the UK for Brexit. However, Defence has developed a prudent standby package of 3,300 Defence personnel who are on standby to support civil authorities on a range of tasks if required.
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 modernise defence strategy to ensure the UK can address hybrid threats.
Answered by Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton
Hybrid threats require a whole of Government approach, not just Defence. Accordingly, the UK approach has centred upon using all arms of Government and the levers available to deter, respond to, and counter hostile activity.
The Modernising Defence Programme, published in 2018, acknowledged that hybrid threats are one of the driving factors fundamentally changing the character of warfare and set out the ways in which Defence would mobilise, modernise and transform to address this. The Ministry of Defence (MOD) is actively working to develop the right capabilities, policies and permissions to effectively respond to hybrid threats, and the additional £2.2 billion funding for Defence announced as part of Spending Round 19 is supporting that effort.
We are also working to protect our conventional capabilities from new threats. The MOD has already invested significantly in cyber defence and security, across a broad range of its capabilities and infrastructure. This includes investing £12 million in the Defence Cyber School, £22 million on the creation of new cyber operations centres, and £40 million in the Cyber Security Operations Capability. £265 million has also been invested in a pioneering approach to root out cyber vulnerabilities within military platforms and wider cyber-dependent systems, helping Defence better understand and mitigate cyber risks.
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 ensure that drone safety regulations are maintained when the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is the UK competent authority for the administration of legislation under the Air Navigation Order (ANO). The implications for the Regulation and operation of all military aircraft, including Remotely Piloted Air Systems (RPAS), when the UK leaves the EU has been thoroughly assessed by the Military Aviation Authority (MAA) (which forms part of the Defence Safety Authority) with relevant measures being developed in the case that the UK leaves the EU without a deal. This will be ongoing to ensure compliance with all future developments in this area. The MAA continues to publish guidance to its Regulated Community.
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 her Department is taking with the Department of Health and Social Care to increase the capacity of veteran-specific mental healthcare within the NHS.
Answered by Tobias Ellwood
Ministers from the Ministry of Defence (MOD) and the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) meet on a regular basis to discuss a wide range of issues relating to the health and wellbeing of Service personnel and veterans, including mental health. In the United Kingdom the provision of healthcare to the general population, including veterans, is devolved.
The DHSC and MOD examine the provision of veterans' mental health services on a regular basis. Data and progress of NHS England's Veterans Mental Health Transition Intervention and Liaison Service and Complex Treatment Service is presented to the MOD/UK Departments of Health Partnership Board, Joint Commissioning Group and the Cabinet Office led Covenant Reference Group.
In England, the National Health Service has announced that an extra £10 million will be invested into a new NHS dedicated crisis service that will expand the current bespoke veteran mental health services and provide intensive support to veterans battling alcohol, drugs and mental health problems, capturing those individuals nearing crisis. The extra funding will also enable a roll out of veteran-friendly general practitioner surgeries and hospitals as part of efforts to make sure those who have served their country get the specialist help they deserve in every part of the health service.
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 improve response times within the Service Complaints Ombudsman.
Answered by Tobias Ellwood
The office of the Service Complaints Ombudsman for the Armed Forces currently has around 140 unallocated applications for investigation for matters of Maladministration and Substance (the oldest case dates back to January 2018). Applications relating to the review of an admissibility decision and undue delay investigations are being considered within target timescales.
The Ombudsman has been open and transparent about the backlog of casework and is doing everything possible to reduce it. Most notably, work is ongoing to recruit staff to fill investigator vacancies. Further work is being undertaken to determine the correct level of resource required to not only reduce the backlog but to establish an organisation that can sustain future demand. As well as an external review of processes, to identify where efficiencies may be introduced, a peer review is planned by representatives from external Ombudsman organisations in order to benefit from their experiences.
The Ombudsman has made it clear that the quality of investigations undertaken by her office must not suffer as a result of initiatives to reduce the backlog. Applicants are being updated regularly on their case and kept informed of likely timescales.
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 the procedure is for addressing complaints raised by black, Asian, minority ethnic and female military personnel.
Answered by Tobias Ellwood
The purpose of the Service Complaints system is to provide all serving and former Service personnel with a process that is fair, effective and efficient and one, in which they can have confidence to raise matters of concern relating to their Service, and to seek redress. It is the responsibility of all those involved to ensure that complaints are handled confidentially, fairly, promptly and correctly.
Once a Service Complaint has been received, the procedures for handling and deciding a complaint are set out in Joint Service Publication (JSP) 831: Redress of Individual Grievances: Service Complaints. This JSP contains the policy and direction on Service Complaints and guidance on the processes involved and best practice to apply.
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, pursuant to the Answer of 13 February 2019 to Question 221002 on Navy: Shipping, what the maximum (a) lifespan is of newly constructed warships and (b) number of years commercial vessels can have been in service to be considered for military refurbishment.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The maximum lifespan of newly constructed warships is dependent on many factors that are both set in the design phase and vary through the service life of the vessel, and are determined by the capability required.
The maximum age of a commercial vessel considered for military refurbishment is also dependent on a number of factors such as design, working life and the capability requirement.
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 the expected lifespan of refurbished commercial vessels is compared to newly constructed warships.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The expected lifespan of refurbished commercial vessels would be dependent on the age of the vessel being converted and the role that it is expected to fill. In general, the lifespan would be less than for newly constructed warships.
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 estimate he has made of the cost to the public purse of (a) repairing and (b) retrofitting (i) ferries and (ii) container vessels retired from commercial service to make them operable for the Royal Navy.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
During the pre-concept and concept phase for any ship procurement programme the widest possible range of options is considered for satisfying the capability requirement, the costs for which would be specific to the particular requirement.
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 much his Department is spending on a public information campaign to prepare people for the potential effects of the UK leaving the EU without a deal.
Answered by Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton
The Government has a duty to inform citizens and businesses about how leaving the EU might affect them, and to advise on the steps they may need to take to prepare for EU Exit.
We have developed a cross-Departmental public information campaign to help achieve this. Over the coming weeks, we will be using a range of channels to direct UK citizens, businesses, EU citizens living in the UK and UK nationals living in the EU to a dedicated area on GOV.UK at Gov.uk/euexit.
The Ministry of Defence (MOD) is working closely with the Department for Exiting the European Union and other Government Departments to take the necessary steps to ensure the country continues to operate as smoothly as possible from the day we leave. The MOD is publishing information for our personnel to ensure they remain suitably informed and are able to prepare accordingly. The MOD has incurred no direct costs in relation to this public information campaign.