Uniformed youth groups: Promoting Skills and Resilience in Young People

Lord West of Spithead Excerpts

Monday 26th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Twycross (Lab)]

This is Ministry of Defence funding. My understanding is that the Government plan to have increased military cadet forces by 30% by 2030; this is an investment of over £70 million of new funding, as set out in the strategic defence review, which the noble Lord rightly points out was published last year.

[Lord West of Spithead (Lab)]

My Lords, I declare an interest as president of the Bollington and Macclesfield Sea Cadets—there is a northern aspect to me, as you can see. Whenever I have been involved with the uniformed cadet forces, I have been amazed how they have changed the lives of many of our young people. Can the Minister confirm that sea cadets will now carry rifles when members of a guard and that they will do range-firing practices like the other cadet units?

[Baroness Twycross (Lab)]

I have absolutely no idea. I am not going to come up with a fudged answer, but I will write to my noble friend to outline whether or not that is the case.