Asked by: Nick Thomas-Symonds (Labour - Torfaen)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the total cost to the public purse was of legal (a) support and (b) representation to Ministers in his Department in relation to their official conduct in each of the last three years.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
Such information is not centrally recorded or collated in the format requested. More generally, I would refer the hon. Member to the long-standing policies on legal expenditure, as set out recently by Cabinet Office Ministers on 12 March 2004, Official Report,17709 and 12 March 2024, Official Report, House of Lords, column 1901-1904.
Asked by: Nick Thomas-Symonds (Labour - Torfaen)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the destinations were of domestic overnight visits undertaken by Ministers within their Department in each of the last three financial years.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The Government publishes on GOV.UK details of the cost of overseas Ministerial travel, including costs of travel, and on other costs (visas, accommodation, meals). As has been the case under successive administrations, the Government does not publish granular detail on Ministers' travel at home or abroad.
Asked by: Nick Thomas-Symonds (Labour - Torfaen)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many domestic overnight visits Ministers within their Department have taken in each of the last three financial years; and what the cost to the public purse was of those visits.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The Government publishes on GOV.UK details of the cost of overseas Ministerial travel, including costs of travel, and on other costs (visa's, accommodation, meals).
The Government does not publish granular detail on Ministers' travel at home or abroad. This has been the case under successive administrations.
Asked by: Nick Thomas-Symonds (Labour - Torfaen)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what estimate he has made of the amount of money lost to fraud and error by his Department in each of the last three financial years.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The Government is proud of its record in proactively seeking to find and prevent more fraud in the system. We have established the dedicated Public Sector Fraud Authority (PSFA). In its first year it delivered £311 million in audited counter fraud benefits.
The PSFA produces a Fraud Landscape Report
(https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cross-government-fraud-landscape-annual-report-2022). This provides data on fraud and error detection, loss and recoveries in Central Government, outside of the tax and welfare system. The 2020-21 Report was published in March 2023.
Ministry of Defence detected £149 million fraud in FY 2020-21, published in the Annual Reports and Accounts for FY 2022-23 – page 79.
Asked by: Nick Thomas-Symonds (Labour - Torfaen)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what guidance his Department issues on the use of WhatsApp.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
In accordance with Cabinet Office Policy [Using non-corporate communication channels (e.g. WhatsApp, private email, SMS) for government business (HTML) - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)] the Ministry of Defence discourages the use of WhatsApp for anything other than keeping in touch purposes, and policy reinforces that personnel must not share or confirm any information above OFFICIAL.
Asked by: Nick Thomas-Symonds (Labour - Torfaen)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what reports and guidance their Department has produced in the last three financial years; and how much was spent on their (a) printing and (b) distribution.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The information is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Nick Thomas-Symonds (Labour - Torfaen)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much funding his Department has (a) budgeted for and (b) spent on advertising in each of the last three financial years.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
A full departmental response could only be provided at disproportionate cost, however the majority of expenditure is accounted for by advertising by the three branches of the Armed Forces and the Ministry of Defence Police (MDP) to aid recruitment. Therefore, figures have been provided by the Royal Navy, Army, Royal Air Force, and the MDP. Marketing and additional advertising expenditure outside of this remit is not held centrally.
Budget figures were 2021-22 £37,903,062; 2022-23 £42,800,318; 2023-24 (to date) £48,177,395.
Spend in 2020-21 was £34,178,742; 2021-22 £30,876,441; 2022-23 £40,562,477; and 2023-24 to date is £19,462,174.
Spending is reviewed regularly to ensure value for money.
Asked by: Nick Thomas-Symonds (Labour - Torfaen)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much funding his Department (a) allocated for and (b) spent on magazine subscriptions in each of the last three financial years.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
A full departmental response could only be provided at disproportionate cost. The total cost of magazine subscriptions spend that was readily available for the last three years is £4,032.04.
Asked by: Nick Thomas-Symonds (Labour - Torfaen)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what subscriptions to (a) newspapers, (b) magazines and (c) online journals his Department has paid for in each of the last three financial years.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The information requested is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. Some information is available for the Directorate of Defence Communications (DDC) as the lead branch for communications within the Ministry of Defence. The total DDC spend for online and hard copy Newspapers for the last financial year is £12,500. Further information cannot be provided as it cannot be separated out from other expenditure nor is it readily available for previous financial years.
Asked by: Nick Thomas-Symonds (Labour - Torfaen)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many and what proportion of digital roles within his Department were vacant as of 26 February 2024.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The Ministry of Defence (MOD) has 925 vacant posts aligned to digital roles which makes up 27.5% as the proportion of the total civilian digital workforce across Defence. Please note that these vacant posts may not be under any recruitment action at this time.
As part of the 2022 to 2025 roadmap for digital and data, all departments made a commitment to reduce their digital and data vacancies to under 10% of total Government Digital and Data headcount by 2025. MOD has adopted the Central Digital and Data Office Digital Data and Technology pay framework and introduced a new Digital Skills Allowance in September 2023 across the entire digital function. This is to enable improved attraction and retention in critical digital and cyber security roles. Recruitment using the Digital Skills Allowance is underway, with some early success in attracting external applicants to some Data and Software Development roles.