To match an exact phrase, use quotation marks around the search term. eg. "Parliamentary Estate". Use "OR" or "AND" as link words to form more complex queries.


Keep yourself up-to-date with the latest developments by exploring our subscription options to receive notifications direct to your inbox

Written Question
Ministry of Defence: Apprentices
Wednesday 6th March 2024

Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much his Department (a) paid in apprenticeship levy fees and (b) spent from its apprenticeship levy funds between September 2021 and August 2023.

Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)

The Department has paid £68 million in apprenticeship levy fees from September 2021 to March 2023, this includes the 10% Government top up. Expenditure between April 2023 to August 2023 is subject to auditing and will be released in the Ministry of Defence financial year 2023-24 Annual Report and Accounts.

As the cost of delivering apprenticeship training as part of professional skills development is linked to the overall training budgets it is not possible to extract the specific apprenticeship spend.


Written Question
Veterans: Education
Tuesday 28th November 2023

Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the value was of enhanced learning credits that expired in the 2022-23 financial year.

Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)

The Ministry of Defence’s Enhanced Learning Credits (ELC) Scheme promotes lifelong learning amongst members of the Armed Forces. The scheme provides financial support in each of a maximum of three separate Financial Years (FY) for higher level learning of a nationally recognised qualification at Level 3 or above on the Recognised Qualification Framework or, if pursued overseas, an approved international equivalent qualification with an approved learning provider.

A total of 27,543 ELC registered Service personnel reached their Scheme expiry date in FY 2022-23. Out of this number, 2,741 fully utilised their entitlement. The requested information on the value of expired ELC credits is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost; eligibility for lower and higher tier awards varies by time in service, and personnel may choose to use some (or none) of their three possible claims, and/or not claim their full entitlement.


Written Question
Ministry of Defence: Billing
Monday 27th March 2023

Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the proportion of invoices his Department paid to small and medium-sized enterprises within five days in (a) the 2021-2022 financial year and (b) each of the last 12 months.

Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice

The proportion of payments made by the Ministry of Defence within five working days can be found in the table below.

MOD (including SDA, DE&S and DNO)

Part (a)

Financial year 2021-2022

92%

Part (b)

Apr-22

92%

May-22

93%

Jun-22

90%

Jul-22

93%

Aug-22

94%

Sep-22

93%

Oct-22

95%

Nov-22

83%

Dec-22

94%

Jan-23

95%

Feb-23

93%

Mar-23

TBC

The number of small and medium-sized enterprises within these figures is not centrally held and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.


Written Question
Afghanistan: Refugees
Monday 20th March 2023

Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether he plans to reopen the ex gratia scheme for Afghan nationals.

Answered by James Heappey

There are no plans to reopen the Ex-Gratia Scheme (EGS) which closed on 30 November 2022. EGS was replaced by the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) scheme, which offers a safe and legal route for relocation to the UK for Afghan citizens who worked for or alongside UK forces in support of the UK mission in Afghanistan.

The scope of those eligible under ARAP includes, and is wider than, those who would be eligible for EGS.


Written Question
Afghanistan: Refugees
Wednesday 8th February 2023

Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 1 February to Q132577 on Afghanistan: Refugees, for how many of the applicants awaiting decisions who (a) have had requests for information from his Department, (b) have sent information in response to such a request and (c) have no requests for information from his Department outstanding and on whose application his Department has made an eligibility decision for family members included in the application his Department made an application to the Home Office under Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy immigration rules in (i) 2021 and (ii) 2022; and for how many of the applicants awaiting decisions where (A) no request for information is outstanding and (B) an eligibility decision has been made on family members his Department made such an application to the Home Office in each of those years.

Answered by James Heappey

Taking each of the hon. Member's questions in turn: (A) as of 3 February 2023, approximately 33,000 applications require an initial request for information (RFI); (B) due to data constraints we cannot share the number of applicants who have replied to RFI, or (C) the number of applicants with outstanding RFIs. Providing responses to B and C would require manually accessing every open application on our system.

Regarding family members, an ARAP eligible individual's dependants (spouse/partner and biological children under the age of 18) are eligible for relocation to the UK subject to verification checks. The principal applicant's ARAP eligibility also allows them to request additional family members meeting certain criteria be considered for relocation under the Additional Family Members (AFM) process.

Finally, ARAP eligibility decisions are taken by the Ministry of Defence (MOD). Where the MOD finds Afghan nationals eligible, we make an application to the Home Office on their behalf. The process is governed by Home Office immigration rules.


Written Question
VE Day: Anniversaries
Thursday 5th March 2020

Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what plans his Department has to support VE day celebrations in local communities.

Answered by Johnny Mercer - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Minister for Veterans' Affairs)

The Ministry of Defence will be supporting a number of regional events through the provision of Service personnel, Armed Forces' bands and aircraft for flypasts. Service personnel will be present in local parades and processions across the UK and the Channel Islands. The Battle of Britain Memorial Flight are planning to carry out flypasts over at least 90 events on Friday 8 May 2020 and a further 70 during the weekend of 9-10 May 2020.


Written Question
Ministry of Defence: Honours
Tuesday 5th November 2019

Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what proportion of staff in his Department in receipt of each category of Honour in (a) December 2018 and (b) June 2019 were (i) from ethnic minority backgrounds and (ii) female aged (A) under 30, (B) 31 to 40, (C) 41 to 50 and (D) aged over 50.

Answered by Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton

The Government is committed to ensuring that the honours system is fully representative of UK society. The proportion of women and people from ethnic minorities receiving recognition on each honours list is available on GOV.UK, and a breakdown of ethnicities of recipients is published on the Ethnicity Facts and Figures website at:

.https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/honours-recipients-by-ethnicity

Information on ages is not correlated with other diversity factors. We also publish the proportion of honours by independent committee on GOV.UK. The numbers of honours recipients in the Ministry of Defence are very small and vary from year to year. Releasing the requested data would identify the individuals and they have given permission for their data to be used for statistical purposes only.


Written Question
Ministry of Defence: Ethnic Groups
Tuesday 23rd July 2019

Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many BAME staff are employed at (a) grade 7, (b) grade 5 and (c) grade 3 in her Department.

Answered by Tobias Ellwood

The number of civilian Full Time Equivalent BAME staff employed in the Ministry of Defence (MOD) as at 30 June 2019 is as follows:

Paid Grade/MOD Equivalent BAME Headcount

Grade 7/B2

65

Grade 5/SCS1

5

Grade 3/SCS3

~

In line with Departmental policy figures are rounded to the nearest 5 and tilde ('~') represents a number lower than five and greater than zero. Includes MOD Main Top Level Budgetary Areas (TLBs) only. Excludes Trading funds, Defence Equipment and Support Bespoke Trading Entity, Executive Agency, Royal Fleet Auxiliary and Locally engaged civilians (LECs).

Full details relating to the numbers of BAME staff employed in the MOD can be found in the Civilian personnel diversity publication on Gov.uk at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/mod-diversity-dashboard-2019


Written Question
Ministry of Defence: Staff
Friday 19th October 2018

Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what change there has been in staffing levels in his Department since June 2016.

Answered by Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton

Details of changes to Armed Forces staffing levels since June 2016 can be found via the links below:

Armed Forces Personnel

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/uk-armed-forces-monthly-service-personnel-statistics-2016

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/uk-armed-forces-monthly-service-personnel-statistics-2017*

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/quarterly-service-personnel-statistics-2018

*The publication of Armed Forces staffing levels changed from monthly to quarterly following the release of the 1 October 2017 edition.

Civilian Personnel

Details of MOD civilian staffing levels are published within the Biannual Civilian Personnel Report (BCPR). A link to the BCPR can be found below:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/mod-biannual-civilian-personnel-statisticsindex

Prior to the biannual change on 1 April 2018, civilian personnel statistics were published quarterly in the Quarterly Civilian Personnel Report; a link to these historic reports can be found below:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/mod-civilian-personnel-quarterly-statistics-index


Written Question
Ministry of Defence: Brexit
Thursday 18th October 2018

Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether he plans to publish his Department's preparations for no deal.

Answered by Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton

Ministry of Defence officials are working closely with colleagues from across Government to manage the consequences of exiting the EU under a 'no deal' scenario. We firmly believe it is in the interests of both the EU and the UK to strike a deal.

That remains the goal on both sides and we are confident that this will be achieved. But it is the job of a responsible Government to prepare for all scenarios, so we have already carried out very significant 'no deal' preparations for the unlikely event that we reach March 2019 without agreeing a deal.

The Government have already published over 100 technical notices so that businesses and citizens have time to prepare in the event of a 'no deal' scenario. These are available on gov.uk in a centralised location that is easy for people to access and use.