Asked by: Mike Penning (Conservative - Hemel Hempstead)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many non-disclosure agreements his Department entered into in 2009.
Answered by Tobias Ellwood
The information, broken down by year, is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Mike Penning (Conservative - Hemel Hempstead)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many non-disclosure agreements his Department entered into in 2008.
Answered by Tobias Ellwood
The information, broken down by year, is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Mike Penning (Conservative - Hemel Hempstead)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many non-disclosure agreements his Department entered into in 2007.
Answered by Tobias Ellwood
The information, broken down by year, is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Mike Penning (Conservative - Hemel Hempstead)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many non-disclosure agreements his Department entered into in 2006.
Answered by Tobias Ellwood
The information, broken down by year, is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Mike Penning (Conservative - Hemel Hempstead)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many non-disclosure agreements his Department has entered into in each year since 2005.
Answered by Tobias Ellwood
This information is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Mike Penning (Conservative - Hemel Hempstead)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether his Department provides assistance to (a) serving and (b) retired personnel when they are in dispute with the Child Maintenance Service.
Answered by Tobias Ellwood
The Ministry of Defence (MOD) takes its duties in facilitating the recovery of child support maintenance very seriously. The MOD has a Memorandum of Understanding with the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) to facilitate the direct deduction of child maintenance payments from the pay of non-resident parents who are Service personnel, where it is appropriate to do so.
Where a parent asks the CMS to help obtain appropriate child support from a Service person, the MOD will assist the CMS in engaging with the Service person and will implement a Deduction from Earnings Request submitted by the CMS, where it is appropriate to do so. This mechanism can also be applied to applicable Service pensions and civilian pay.
It would not be appropriate for the Ministry of Defence to intervene in disputes between Service personnel or veterans and the CMS. Detailed guidance on the CMS complaints process, mandatory reconsiderations and appeals is published at:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/646116/if-you-are-unhappy-cms.pdf
Asked by: Mike Penning (Conservative - Hemel Hempstead)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, under what circumstances his Department reveals to a third party that an individual is receiving a war disablement pension.
Answered by Tobias Ellwood
The Department only releases information to a third party in line with Data Protection Legislation.
In regard to War Disablement Pensions, disclosure to other Government Departments, local authorities and other public bodies can be made under Schedule 2, Paragraph 5 of the Data Protection Act 2018. As War Disablement Pensions can affect other Social Security Benefits, the legislation allowing the sharing of personal information for state benefit and war pension purposes is Section 3 of the Social Security Act 1998. This legislation can be found on the Gov.UK website at the following link - https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1998/14
Additionally, information is shared with third parties at the request of the claimant themselves, either in the form of authority for representation, or written authority.
Asked by: Mike Penning (Conservative - Hemel Hempstead)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, for what reason the Enhanced Learning Credit Administration Service no longer funds the (a) national qualifications framework, (b) qualifications credit framework , (c) self-regulated framework and (d) industry recognised certifications at level three and above; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton
There have been no changes to the funding arrangements of the Enhanced Learning Credit Administration Service.
The Ministry of Defence provides funding and promotes lifelong learning through its Standard, Enhanced, and Publicly Funded Higher Education schemes. We use a variety of qualification frameworks including National Qualification Framework, the Qualification and Curriculum Framework, the Scottish Qualifications Authority and several others as a means to continually develop our people both while serving, during transition, and after having left providing eligibility criteria is satisfied.
Asked by: Mike Penning (Conservative - Hemel Hempstead)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, when he made the decision that Ministers will not meet military charities which are not members of Confederation of Service Charities; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Tobias Ellwood
No such decision has been made. I am encouraging the service charity sector to strengthen their professional standards, and Confederation of Service Charities (COBSEO) membership is part of this. I will by exception engage with non-COBSEO charities, and part of the conversation I will have with them is to understand why they are not members of COBSEO.
Asked by: Mike Penning (Conservative - Hemel Hempstead)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether he plans to monitor smoking prevalence among serving armed forces personnel and veterans; and if he will he make a statement.
Answered by Tobias Ellwood
The Ministry of Defence (MOD) has been monitoring smoking prevalence among UK Armed Forces personnel since 2014. We are taking targeted measures to reduce smoking rates in support of Government plans for a smoke free generation.
From January 2014 to January 2018 smoking prevalence among Serving personnel reduced by approximately 5%.
The MOD has no plans to monitor smoking prevalence in veterans.