Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what post-incident review framework is triggered when an incident impacts multiple critical national infrastructure sectors simultaneously.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security) (Jointly with the Cabinet Office)
The Amber Book provides a national framework for crisis response, establishing clear roles and responsibilities and defining expectations across the lifecycle of a crisis. Learning lessons both during and after a crisis response is a core means of driving improvement in the way that government prepares for, responds to, and recovers from future emergencies across all sectors.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how international benchmarks are used to evaluate the UK's progress on national resilience.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security) (Jointly with the Cabinet Office)
The Resilience Action Plan committed to deliver a consolidated, data-driven picture of our resilience baseline by 2029. The Resilience Action Plan highlights that there is no common methodology for measuring overall national resilience internationally.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what systems are in place to identify and apply lessons learned from international natural disasters and cyber attacks to UK frameworks.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security) (Jointly with the Cabinet Office)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 10 November 2026 to PQ 38438. The same applies for learning lessons from international natural disasters and cyber attacks.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how the UK Resilience Academy is scaling its training capacity for local responders and civil servants.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security) (Jointly with the Cabinet Office)
The UK Government launched the UK Resilience Academy (UKRA) in April 2025 to strengthen preparedness, skills, and capability across all levels of government and civil society. To scale training capacity nationwide, the Academy operates a multi-channel delivery model combining residential learning at its core campus, The Hawkhills in North Yorkshire, with regionally delivered courses and an expanded range of digital resources. The Academy’s curriculum is open to all resilience practitioners and civil servants, and is built upon the updated Resilience and Emergencies National Occupational Standards, which were established following comprehensive national consultation with the resilience sector.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what objectives have been set for the Rapid Innovation Team.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The UK Defence Innovation (UKDI) Rapid Innovation Team (RIT) exists to accelerate novel technologies and new ways of working into operational capability, helping Defence innovate at the pace demanded by a rapidly changing threat and technology environment.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many homes his Department estimates will be built on developable defence land by 2030.
Answered by Calvin Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for Veterans and People)
The Ministry of Defence (MOD) has set out there is long-term potential for 100,000 homes to be built on developable MOD land through a variety of land release and development programmes and innovative partnership models.
This will benefit the country, while ensuring our ‘Forces First’ principle, where current and former Service Personnel will have priority access to homes built on land previously owned by the MOD.
The current MOD land release pipeline is published and updated periodically, including estimates of housing unit potential and surplus site vacation date: Disposal database: House of Commons report - GOV.UK
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment his Department has made of the cost-effectiveness of the delivery of military housing through the Defence Housing Strategy 2025.
Answered by Calvin Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for Veterans and People)
In January 2025, this Government completed a landmark deal to reacquire the c.36,000 service family estate homes sold to Annington Homes in 1996. This reversed one of the most notorious privatisations of the 1990s, described as ‘disastrous’ by the Public Accounts Committee, and saves c.£600,000 a day, or over £200 million a year.
Under the plans set out in the Defence Housing Strategy, nine in 10 Defence homes – more than 40,000 - will be modernised or upgraded, of which three in 10 – more than 10,000 - will be substantially refurbished or replaced, including through new build, backed by record £9.2 billion of investment to be delivered and driven by the new Defence Housing Service.
The Defence Housing Service will improve contracting and delivery efficiencies and allow the reinvestment of value generated from surplus defence housing and land. The funding and planning flexibilities set out in the Defence Housing Strategy will provide a more sustainable framework for maintaining defence housing, improving services for Service Personnel and their families, and ensuring value for the taxpayer.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how non-governmental organizations and think tanks are consulted during reviews of the National Risk Register.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security) (Jointly with the Cabinet Office)
Non-governmental organisations and think tanks are consulted during updates to the National Security Risk Assessment and National Risk Register (NRR) through the Expert Advisory Programme. The programme consists of eight standing advisory groups of technical and scientific experts, each led by an independent chairperson. More information on the methodology and expert challenge process can be found in Chapter 2 of the NRR.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what forecast he has made for defence employment numbers in Scotland over the next five years.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
Defence investment in Scotland directly supported 12,200 industry jobs in 2024 to 2025. This is up by 7% from last year. As of 1 April 2026, there were also 3,880 civilian jobs and 9,620 regular Armed Forces jobs.
The £298 billion Defence Investment Plan is estimated to create nearly 60,000 additional jobs across the UK by 2029-30, compared with 2023-24 levels, with Scotland well placed to benefit.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment his Department has made of the cost-effectiveness of annual funding allocations to UK Defence Innovation.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Ministry of Defence (MOD) is backing UK Defence Innovation (UKDI) with £1.6 billion of investment over the next four years, providing long-term funding certainty.
The MOD assesses the cost-effectiveness of funding allocated to UKDI against its contribution to Defence outcomes, alignment with strategic priorities, affordability, deliverability, and wider benefits such as speed, resilience, economic growth and international influence. UKDI is supported by a ringfenced annual budget of over £400 million and is focused on accelerating innovative technologies into deployable military capability.
Success is measured by the extent to which useful technologies reach military users more quickly and at greater scale, rather than by the number of competitions or contracts awarded. Projects are assessed against UKDI's strategic objectives and thematic priorities, with regular monitoring and evaluation used to inform evidence-based investment decisions and ensure value for money.