Asked by: John Stanley (Conservative - Tonbridge and Malling)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether the Defence Attaché in post in the British Embassy in Ukraine was aware when the Government gave export licence approval in December 2014 for the export of 75 Saxon Armoured Personnel Carriers to Ukraine that they might be armed on their arrival in Ukraine; and what steps were taken by the British Embassy in Ukraine to inform the Government of this possibility.
Answered by David Lidington
Our British Embassy in Kyiv were consulted on the export licence application and made enquiries with the Ukraine Ministry of Defence and Ukroboronprom (state-owned defence enterprise) who stated that the Saxon Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs) would be used by two battalions operating in the Anti-Terrorist Operation area and by airmobile units for reconnaissance and general patrolling. Our British Embassy in Kyiv was not aware that the Saxon vehicles might be armed on their arrival in Ukraine and we are not aware that the Ukrainians have armed any of the APC’s. We have however been informed by the Ukraine Deputy Minister of Defence that some may be converted for use as “Medevac vehicles.”
Asked by: John Stanley (Conservative - Tonbridge and Malling)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many private and public sector housing completions there were in England in each year from 1985 up to the latest year for which figures are available.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
Annual statistics on house building completions by tenure in England are published in the Department's live table 244 which is available at the following link.
http://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-house-building
Taken together, house building statistics by housing association and local authority tenures provide estimates of total social housing completions, but these figures understate total affordable supply. This is because the house building figures are categorised by the type of developer rather than the intended final tenure, leading to under recording of affordable housing, and a corresponding over recording of private enterprise figures.
A more complete account of additional affordable housing including new build and acquisitions is provided for England and is published in the Department’s live table 1009, which is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-affordable-housing-supply
Asked by: John Stanley (Conservative - Tonbridge and Malling)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will issue a direction to the Chief Executive of NHS Care Services to reply to the letter of 13 February 2015 sent by the right hon. Member for Tonbridge and Malling to his company's Head of Communications, Dr Belinda Webb-Blofeld, for urgent response.
Answered by Jane Ellison
We understand my Rt. hon. Friend is referring to NSL Care Services.
Departmental offcials have passed my Rt. hon. Friend’s concerns to the local National Health Service.
Asked by: John Stanley (Conservative - Tonbridge and Malling)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether there is a Defence Attaché in post in the British Embassy in Ukraine.
Answered by David Lidington
There is a Defence Attaché in post in the British Embassy in Ukraine.
Asked by: John Stanley (Conservative - Tonbridge and Malling)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what the value of arms exports from the UK was in each of the last five years for which figures are available.
Answered by Matt Hancock
The latest UK Defence export figures were published as official statistics on 8 July 2014. A link to the full dataset is below:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/uk-defence-and-security-export-figures-2013
An extract from the figures is below showing the value of UK Defence Exports (Based on orders) over the last 5 years.
Year | £BN |
2009 | 7.3 |
2010 | 5.8 |
2011 | 5.4 |
2012 | 8.8 |
2013 | 9.8 |
Total | 37.1 |
Asked by: John Stanley (Conservative - Tonbridge and Malling)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, to state the date or dates on which export licence approval was given for the export of Saxon armoured vehicles to Ukraine, the number of Saxon armoured vehicles for which export approval was given and their stated value.
Answered by Matt Hancock
On 23 December 2014 two licences were granted for export to Ukraine of a total of 75 Saxon Armoured Personnel Carriers. The stated value of the export was £2,075,000.
Asked by: John Stanley (Conservative - Tonbridge and Malling)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what information he has as to whether Saxon armoured vehicles exported to Ukraine will have arms mounted on them by Ukroboronprom or any other Ukrainian organisation.
Answered by Philip Dunne
The Ministry of Defence supplied the first batch of 20 Saxon vehicles to the Ukrainian Government. The vehicles were delivered unarmed and any subsequent decision to arm those vehicles is a matter for the Ukrainian Government.
Asked by: John Stanley (Conservative - Tonbridge and Malling)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether he will be laying a Gifting Minute before the House in respect of Saxon armoured vehicles exported to Ukraine.
Answered by David Lidington
The 20 Saxon armoured vehicles exported to Ukraine was a commercial sale between a private company and the Ukraine Ministry of Defence, and subject to the rigorous export licensing process. The vehicles were not gifted to Ukraine by the Government, therefore a gifting minute will not be laid before the House.
Asked by: John Stanley (Conservative - Tonbridge and Malling)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answer of 9 February 2015 to Question 222938, regarding the standard individual export licence for equipment employing cryptography and software for equipment employing cryptography to the value of £7.7 billion approved by his Department for export to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, what the reasons were for the surrender of that licence by the exporter in August 2014; what role was played by his Department in the surrender of that licence; and what the reasons were for his Department's approval of that licence in the first quarter of 2013 when it was then surrendered unused by the exporter 18 months later.
Answered by Matt Hancock
Exporters are not obliged to give reasons for surrendering licences. This was a purely commercial decision by the company and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills played no part in the decision to surrender the licence.
As is the case with all applications, this application was assessed against the Consolidated EU and National Arms Export Licensing Criteria in the usual way, taking into account the nature of the goods and the intended end-use. The application was for electronic components and circuit boards, which are specifically designed for building mobile phone networks for public use. The proposed export did not breach any of the Criteria and therefore the licence was granted.
Asked by: John Stanley (Conservative - Tonbridge and Malling)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, for what reason the value of extant standard individual export licences to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories fell from £7.9 billion, as stated in his letter of 12 May 2014 to the hon. Member for Tonbridge and Malling, to £93 million, as stated in his letter of 15 December 2014 to the same hon. Member.
Answered by Matt Hancock
The difference is accounted for by one licence, to the value of £7.7 billion, which was surrendered unused by the exporter in August 2014 and therefore ceased to be extant.