Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether voluntary, community, and faith groups are being formally integrated into local emergency response structures.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security) (Jointly with the Cabinet Office)
We understand the vital role of the voluntary, community and faith sector (VCFS) in all aspects of resilience and have been working closely with a wide range of groups on our resilience approach since coming into government.
Following a recommendation from the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, the Government launched a consultation to gain views on whether placing a statutory duty on Category 1 responders to establish and maintain relationships with the VCFS is the best means to achieve stronger engagement, and what burdens any new statutory duty might have on both emergency responders and VCFS organisations. This will form part of the Post Implementation Review of the Civil Contingencies Act due to be published in March 2027.
We are continuing to identify and implement non-statutory measures that strengthen working with the VCFS in resilience and emergency response.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how local authorities are feeding bottom-up risk assessments into the national resilience baseline.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security) (Jointly with the Cabinet Office)
The UK Government’s Resilience Action Plan, available on GOV.UK, commits to bringing all local and national data together by 2029 to create a single, complete baseline of the UK's overall resilience.
Local authorities also feed into national resilience planning through Local Resilience Forums (LRFs), which create Community Risk Registers (CRRs) based on local needs. The Government uses these local risk assessments to inform the National Risk Register (NRR).
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what funding has been allocated to enhance public emergency alert systems in order to improve domestic resilience.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security) (Jointly with the Cabinet Office)
Emergency Alerts are a critical tool in the Government’s toolkit for warning and informing people where their lives are at risk. The Cabinet Office is committed to delivering value for money to the public and to continuously improving the service to keep people safe. There is no cost of issuing an Emergency Alert.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to page 111 of his Department’s Strategic Defence Review, published on 2 June 2025, what progress his Department has made on accelerating the development and deployment of its new Recce-Strike approach.
Answered by Louise Sandher-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)
The Army has approved and is implementing a Deep Recce Strike Brigade to provide Corps-level (HQ ARRC) integration of intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and precision strike capabilities, including novel one-way effectors. The 5th Generation Land Force programme will increase human-machine teaming, autonomy and decision advantage, further accelerating recce-strike capability across the force.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, whether research and development funding has been reallocated to support technological development in line with the National Security Strategy 2025.
Answered by Chris McDonald - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Security Strategy 2025 emphasises the importance of increasing competitiveness in frontier technologies such as artificial intelligence, quantum and semiconductor technologies. UKRI is already investing £4 billion over the next four years in frontier technologies, and is also investing £555 million in defence-related R&D as part of its defence and national security priority programme. Through this programme, UKRI will work with its partners to develop a strategic framework that anticipates future defence and security requirements and guides a programme of investments to deliver a pipeline of talent and skills and strategic advantage for a safer UK.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what measures are being taken to protect British military personnel stationed overseas from rising hybrid and asymmetric threats.
Answered by Louise Sandher-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)
The Ministry of Defence places the safety and security of British military personnel stationed overseas as a top priority. Security arrangements are kept under continuous review and we ensure any measures in place remain proportionate, including in response to any changes in threat or risk.
We routinely assess the wider security environment and work closely with allies, partners and host nations to ensure that personnel remain appropriately supported and protected. For operational and security reasons, it would not be appropriate to comment on the specific measures in place at individual locations.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what new peer review protocols are being introduced to evaluate the operational readiness of Local Resilience Forums.
Answered by Florence Eshalomi - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Government has worked closely with Local Resilience Forums to develop a new peer review model for the sector, designed to provide constructive external challenge and support continuous improvement. This will support Local Resilience Forums to learn from each other and strengthen their arrangements.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to paragraph 79c of the UK Government Resilience Action Plan published 8 July 2025, what recent progress has been made on the Stronger LRF Trailblazers programme to pilot new models of local resilience leadership.
Answered by Florence Eshalomi - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Government is continuing to deliver the Stronger Local Resilience Forum (LRF) Trailblazers programme in Cumbria, Greater Manchester, London, Northumbria and Suffolk, with a further £3.5 million being provided in 2026/27. The programme is testing approaches to strengthening strategic leadership, democratic accountability and the integration of resilience into wider local policy and delivery.
Progress includes the introduction of dedicated Chief Resilience Officer roles in all five Trailblazer LRFs and strengthened arrangements for involving local elected leaders in resilience. An independent baseline evaluation found that Trailblazers had begun putting in place the foundations for longer-term change, including strengthened leadership roles, governance and accountability arrangements and work to improve integration across local systems.
Independent evaluation of the programme is continuing, with emerging evidence and lessons informing the Government's future approach to strengthening local resilience.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what metrics are used within the health sector to assess structural vulnerability to simultaneous biological and cyber disruptions.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department supports the health and social care system to monitor, plan, and respond to the full range of potential risks, and based on lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic and previous incidents, we aim to have flexible, adaptable, and scalable capabilities that can respond to any threat, or any combination of threats occurring at the same time.