Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that armed forces GPs (a) maintain up-to-date skills in the delivery of emergency and urgent care and (b) have access to appropriate NHS (i) placements and (ii) training opportunities.

Answered by Al Carns - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for Veterans)

Armed Forces GPs have a unique scope of practice and develop military and medical experience and skills throughout their career.

The General Practice programme for the Armed Forces personnel includes ‘Operational Preparedness’ courses covering areas of practice which are unique to Service and beyond the core licensing standard. The curriculum includes clinical leadership; occupationally focused primary care; pre-hospital medicine; force health protection and operational medicine. The 2025 Operational Preparedness course is using immersive simulation methodologies to develop skills in pre-hospital emergency care; medical planning; environmental health and other military medical specialist training.

Once qualified as a GP, extensive continuing professional development ensures that Armed Forces GPs maintain up-to-date skills through training, experience, exercise and deployment. Specific pre-deployment and mission-specific training incorporates individual and collective training, validation and assurance events. NHS and other medical placements, including pre-hospital care, may also be facilitated as required to develop a GP for their operational role supporting military operations across the globe.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking with Cabinet colleagues to ensure that all Defence Medical Services medical officers undertaking Foundation Year (a) 1 and (b) 2 training within NHS hospitals receive (i) high-fidelity and (ii) role-specific training to (A) maintain and (B) develop their core military medical skill set.

Answered by Al Carns - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for Veterans)

Defence Medical Services (DMS) medical officers undertake Foundation Programme training within NHS hospitals as Phase 0 Trainees prior to initial (Phase 1 and 2) military training. This is to allow DMS medical officers to develop their clinical and professional skills in the workplace and meet the competences and outcomes of the Foundation Programme. Following completion of the Foundation Programme, Phase 1 and 2 training ensures high-fidelity and role-specific training to develop core military medical skill set.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Departments is taking to assess the feasibility of retrofitting existing platforms for autonomous capability.

Answered by Maria Eagle - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)

The Strategic Defence Review recognised that the RAF must stay at the leading edge of combat air's evolution, through the transition from exclusively crewed combat air platforms to a Future Combat Air System (FCAS) with a mix of crewed, uncrewed, and increasingly autonomous platforms, integrated into the UK's digital targeting web. The future of the RAF lies in accelerating its adoption of the latest technology and innovation. That will be considered as part of the Defence Investment Plan, and in subsequent force development work.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking with Cabinet colleagues to help ensure that the training received by combat medical technicians who are not qualified paramedics is recognised by civilian health care employers.

Answered by Al Carns - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for Veterans)

The training Combat Medical Technicians (CMTs) receive leads to Higher or Advanced Apprenticeship qualifications which are recognised by civilian healthcare employers.

Initially, CMTs undertake a Foundation Medic course, followed by a Level 3 qualification as a Senior Healthcare Support Worker. Further to this CMTs are able to access Level 3 and 4 Pre-Hospital Emergency Care and First Response Emergency Care Apprenticeships and can continue to a Level 5 Diploma in Emergency and Urgent Care. In some instances, CMTs can also progress and complete a degree in Paramedic Science.

Further to this, those employed in Public Health settings also have the opportunity to access courses and qualifications in specialist areas such as audiometry, phlebotomy and the delivery of vaccinations; again these qualifications are nationally recognised.

CMTs work in the NHS whilst on Clinical Placements in both Secondary Healthcare and Ambulance Trusts with many delivering Emergency Care to the general populous.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to paragraph 9 of section 7.5 of the Strategic Defence Review 2025, published on 2 June 2025, what his planned timetable is for the Cabinet sub-Committee or equivalent Ministerial group to meet.

Answered by Luke Pollard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)

I welcome the hon. Gentleman’s interest in space. The Ministry of Defence along with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and other departments, is coordinating space activities across government. Ministers from across government met on the 22 April to discuss space and, since the publication of the Strategic Defence Review, Ministers met on 7 July to follow up on our approach to space. We remain committed to establishing and evolving the right space governance structure to ensure that activities are effectively coordinated across all relevant departments.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much additional funding his Department plans to provide for space technology within the remit of the National Armaments Director.

Answered by Maria Eagle - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)

The Strategic Defence Review published earlier this year has recommended that Defence must urgently develop the resilience of its military space systems.

The new Defence Investment Plan, which will be published in Autumn, will set out how we will deliver the Strategic Defence Review's vision and will be both deliverable and affordable.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what proportion of (a) Royal Navy, (b) British Army, and (c) RAF personnel are in frontline roles.

Answered by Luke Pollard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)

The Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force do not have a definition for ‘frontline roles’ and the figures below therefore reflect the current Full-Time Trained Strength:

Royal Navy/Royal Marines – 28,040

Army – 70,860

Royal Air Force – 27,710

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what data her Department holds on the (a) delivery and (b) effectiveness of knife crime prevention training provided by police forces in schools.

Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Youth Endowment Fund (YEF), the government-funded what works centre for protecting children from involvement in violence, provides detailed, practical and evidence-based guidance for schools and education settings on how best to protect children from involvement in violence. To further understand how it can support schools, the Department for Education has commissioned research with 40 schools on the ways in which they identify and respond to serious violence and knife crime. The research report will be published later this year.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of trends in the level of bus service provision per capita in (a) Solihull Metropolitan Borough, (b) Warwickshire, (c) Worcestershire and (d) Birmingham City Council areas; and how that compares to the national average.

Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Department for Transport publishes statistics on vehicle distance travelled on local bus services, which can be used as a proxy for bus service provision. These figures have been combined with Office for National Statistics population estimates to assess trends in provision per capita. The year ending March 2024 figures have been calculated using mid-year 2023 population estimates, as these are the latest available figures.

Data for Solihull and Birmingham is not available, so figures for West Midlands Combined Authority have been provided instead.

Table: Vehicle distance travelled (kilometres) per capita on local bus services from year ending March 2015.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the proportion of maintenance downtime is for (a) tanks, (b) armoured fighting vehicles and (c) armed personnel carriers across the armed forces.

Answered by Maria Eagle - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)

It will take time to collate and review the information needed to answer the hon. Member’s question. I will write to him shortly and place a copy of my letter in the Library of the House.

Found: Tessa Munt (Liberal Democrat; Wells and Mendip Hills) Sarah Russell (Labour; Congleton) Dr Neil Shastri-Hurst

Found: Costa (Chair); Paula Barker; Gill Furniss; Mehmuda Mian; Dr Rose Marie Parr; Anna Sabine; Dr Neil Shastri-Hurst

Found: Dr Rose Marie Parr (Lay member) Anna Sabine (Liberal Democrat; Frome and East Somerset) Dr Neil Shastri-Hurst

Found: Pam Cox; Linsey Farnsworth; Sir Ashley Fox; Warinder Juss; Tessa Munt; Sarah Russell; Dr Neil Shastri-Hurst

Found: Chair); Matt Bishop; Pam Cox; Sir Ashley Fox; Warinder Juss; Tessa Munt; Sarah Russell; Dr Neil Shastri-Hurst

Submit Evidence (by 30 Sep 2025)

This inquiry will examine how advice and legal services are adapting to secure access to justice across civil, criminal, and family law, and the impacts of the cyber-attack on the Legal Aid Agency.