Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many reports his Department received of unidentified flying objects in 2022.
Answered by James Heappey
The Ministry of Defence (MOD) has no opinion on the existence of either extra-terrestrials, Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO) or Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP), and ceased to investigate reports of UFO or UAP in 2009.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether the Royal Navy's P2000 fleet continues to support the work of the Border Force in the English Channel.
Answered by James Heappey
The Royal Navy P2000 fleet is not currently supporting Border Force operations in the English Channel.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, for what reason the Britannia Royal Naval College is subject to inspections by the Office for Standards in Education.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
Ofsted is commissioned by Defence to provide Ministers with independent external oversight of initial training across Defence. They examine training establishment's provision of Care & Welfare including self-assessment processes using the MOD specific Inspection Framework (MODIF).
This commission and its terms are set out in a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) agreed between the MOD and Ofsted. Within this MoU Ofsted inspections across all 3 services cover: Phase 1 and Phase 2 Regular training establishments for Officers and other ranks, University Service Units and Phase 1 and Phase 2 Reserve Training.
Ofsted will seek to determine the progress made in addressing issues of duty of care, welfare and support for recruits and trainees within Initial Training.
Findings and recommendations are provided to the unit, with general MOD recommendations made in the published Annual Report to Ministers.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the average response time to subject access requests was by their Department in the latest period for which data is available; and if they will make an assessment of the adequacy of that response time.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The responses sent by the Ministry of Defence (MOD) between 1 August 2023 and 31 August 2023 were issued, on average, 20 days after the Subject Access Request (SAR) was received.
This is considered adequate as it complies with data protection legislation. Data protection legislation requires MOD to respond to SARs within one month of receipt, unless they are complex.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps they are taking to reduce backlogs of Member correspondence in their office.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The Government attaches great importance to the effective and timely handling of correspondence, particularly from Parliamentarians. The Cabinet Office's Guide to Handling Correspondence available on gov.uk, requests departments and agencies to respond to correspondence within a 20-working day target deadline.
With regards to timeliness of responses to enquiries received by members, the Cabinet Office published data on this for 2022 for all government departments on GOV.UK in March 2023, and will be publishing data for Q1 and Q2 2023 shortly. The 2022 data can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/data-on-responses-to-correspondence-from-mps-and-peers-2022
Every effort must be made to reply to correspondence promptly and within the original deadline. However, if the matters raised in the correspondence require substantial investigation, it might not be possible to provide a substantive reply to a case within the departmental deadline.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the average time taken by his Department to respond to freedom of information requests in the 2022-23 financial year.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The Ministry of Defence (MOD) reports National Statistics on FOI request timeliness which is published here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/government-foi-statistics#2022
The department responded to 86.5% of all requests received within the timeframe set out in the legislation for financial year 2022-23, this is an improvement on the previous financial year.
The MOD operates a devolved system to answer FOI requests. There is a centralised FOI policy team dedicated to working with teams across Defence and the Information Commissioners Office (ICO), to find ways to drive improvement performance. This includes delivery of regular training sessions and meetings to share best practices and highlight the importance of answering requests in a compliant and timely manner.
The MOD aims to meet our obligations under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act which states all requests should be answered within 20-working days.
The Department monitors performance against the timeliness targets set out by the Information Commissioners Office monthly and reports to the Defence Board on a quarterly basis.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps their Department is taking to improve the response time to FOI requests.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The Ministry of Defence (MOD) reports National Statistics on FOI request timeliness which is published here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/government-foi-statistics#2022
The department responded to 86.5% of all requests received within the timeframe set out in the legislation for financial year 2022-23, this is an improvement on the previous financial year.
The MOD operates a devolved system to answer FOI requests. There is a centralised FOI policy team dedicated to working with teams across Defence and the Information Commissioners Office (ICO), to find ways to drive improvement performance. This includes delivery of regular training sessions and meetings to share best practices and highlight the importance of answering requests in a compliant and timely manner.
The MOD aims to meet our obligations under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act which states all requests should be answered within 20-working days.
The Department monitors performance against the timeliness targets set out by the Information Commissioners Office monthly and reports to the Defence Board on a quarterly basis.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what data their Department holds on the average response time to enquiries by Members; and what assessment they have made of the adequacy of that response time.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The Government attaches great importance to the effective and timely handling of correspondence, particularly from Parliamentarians. The Cabinet Office's Guide to Handling Correspondence available on gov.uk, requests departments and agencies to respond to correspondence within a 20-working day target deadline.
With regards to timeliness of responses to enquiries received by members, the Cabinet Office published data on this for 2022 for all government departments on GOV.UK in March 2023, and will be publishing data for Q1 and Q2 2023 shortly. The 2022 data can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/data-on-responses-to-correspondence-from-mps-and-peers-2022
Every effort must be made to reply to correspondence promptly and within the original deadline. However, if the matters raised in the correspondence require substantial investigation, it might not be possible to provide a substantive reply to a case within the departmental deadline.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what has been the average time taken to respond to public inquiries by his Department in each of the last five years; and whether he plans to introduce measures to improve this.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The Ministry of Defence has not been required to respond to any interim or final reports of statutory public inquiries under the Inquiries Act, or to independent non-statutory inquiries, within the last five years.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if they will take steps to visit Solihull constituency in 2023.
Answered by Grant Shapps - Secretary of State for Defence
I am in the process of formalising my visit programme following my recent appointment. I look forward to visiting members of the Armed Forces around the UK and abroad, as I am keen to highlight the fantastic work they do to protect the nation and help it prosper.