Asked by: Valerie Vaz (Labour - Walsall and Bloxwich)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether it his policy that people with tattoos are able to join the Army.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
Individuals with tattoos are able to join the Army, subject to some restrictions. There have been some recent changes made to the Army’s visible tattoo policy following a review this year. I can confirm that, moving forwards, only tattoos on the face and front of the ear will be a bar to entry, in addition to tattoos that are deemed as offensive, obscene or racist.
Further information and guidance for prospective candidates can be found online: https://jobs.army.mod.uk/how-to-join/can-i-apply/tattoos-and-piercings/
Asked by: Valerie Vaz (Labour - Walsall and Bloxwich)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether his Department has deprioritised any Statutory Instruments on UK leaving the EU; and if he will publish the criteria his Department used to deprioritise those Instruments.
Answered by Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton
The Ministry of Defence has not deprioritised any European Union (EU) exit Statutory Instruments (SIs). Given the extension to Article 50, the Department will consider whether any further EU exit SIs will need to be brought forward to amend any EU Regulations, which have come into force since the original EU Exit SI programme was finalised. The Department will keep this under careful review.
Asked by: Valerie Vaz (Labour - Walsall and Bloxwich)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether his Department has undertaken any evaluation of how training the Burmese military has led to improvements in human rights.
Answered by Mike Penning
The Ministry of Defence does not provide combat training to the Burmese military. We do provide educational training to the Burmese military in the form of programmes delivered by the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom on the role of the military in a democracy, leadership and English language training. The British Government does not hold information on whether any Burmese Army soldiers who have received educational training from the UK are involved in military operations against the Rohingya in Rakhine State, nor have we undertaken any evaluation of how educational training provided to the Burmese military has led to improvements in human rights. Our programme of engagement with the Burmese military remains under continual review.
Asked by: Valerie Vaz (Labour - Walsall and Bloxwich)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what information his Department holds on whether any Burmese Army soldiers who have received training from the UK are involved in military operations against the Rohingya in Rakhine State.
Answered by Mike Penning
The Ministry of Defence does not provide combat training to the Burmese military. We do provide educational training to the Burmese military in the form of programmes delivered by the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom on the role of the military in a democracy, leadership and English language training. The British Government does not hold information on whether any Burmese Army soldiers who have received educational training from the UK are involved in military operations against the Rohingya in Rakhine State, nor have we undertaken any evaluation of how educational training provided to the Burmese military has led to improvements in human rights. Our programme of engagement with the Burmese military remains under continual review.
Asked by: Valerie Vaz (Labour - Walsall and Bloxwich)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether his Department has undertaken a review of offering further training to the Burmese military to take account of recent serious human rights violations by the Burmese military against Rohingya civilians in Rakhine State and against ethnic Kachin civilians in Kachin State and northern Shan State, Burma.
Answered by Mike Penning
The Ministry of Defence does not provide combat training to the Burmese military. We do provide educational training to the Burmese military in the form of programmes delivered by the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom on the role of the military in a democracy, leadership and English language training. The British Government does not hold information on whether any Burmese Army soldiers who have received educational training from the UK are involved in military operations against the Rohingya in Rakhine State, nor have we undertaken any evaluation of how educational training provided to the Burmese military has led to improvements in human rights. Our programme of engagement with the Burmese military remains under continual review.
Asked by: Valerie Vaz (Labour - Walsall and Bloxwich)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the likely effect of redundancies in the UK steel industry on the proportion of defence procurement that arises from UK businesses.
Answered by Philip Dunne
Steel is sourced by our contractors from a range of UK and international suppliers, reflecting the need to ensure competitive cost, time and quality. The Ministry of Defence has not directly made an assessment of the likely effect of redundancies in the UK steel industry but, is represented on the cross-Government steel procurement working group led by the Cabinet Office, and new Government guidelines, which include the need for effective pre-procurement engagement, will help UK suppliers compete for contracts and continue to support future defence requirements for steel.
Asked by: Valerie Vaz (Labour - Walsall and Bloxwich)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the cost to the public purse was of providing training courses for the Burmese Army to date; and what funding for that purpose has been allocated for (a) 2014-15 and (b) 2015-16.
Answered by Mark Francois - Shadow Minister (Defence)
To date, the Ministry of Defence (MOD) has spent £105,905 on Defence Education activity with Burma. The MOD's allocated funding for financial year 2014-15 is £139,530 whilst funding for financial year 2015-16 is still under review.
Asked by: Valerie Vaz (Labour - Walsall and Bloxwich)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many buildings his Department sold in (a) 2010, (b) 2011, (c) 2012, (d) 2013 and (e) 2014.
Answered by Anna Soubry
The Ministry of Defence does not record the sales of each individual building; however we do record our disposal sales, which range from large defence sites to smaller parcels of land which are listed below by financial year (FY):
FY2010-11 - 76
FY2011-12 - 100
FY2012-13 - 108
FY2013-14 - 97
FY2014-15 - 29 (up to 31 October 2014)
Asked by: Valerie Vaz (Labour - Walsall and Bloxwich)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, under what timetable his Department plans to phase-out use of telephone lines with the prefix (a) 0845, 0844 and 0843 in accordance with the Cabinet Office guidance on customer service lines published in December 2013 and (b) 03 and 08, where 03 is the primary number under a dual numbering system.
Answered by Anna Soubry
The Ministery of Defence's (MOD) customer service lines cover a number of areas in three main categories:
(1) Services for Veterans are provided through a well-publicised free help line (0808 1914 2 18);
(2) Services for existing military staff are available on the MOD network. However, on those occasions where staff or their families need to call from outside the MOD, there are free (eg Army Welfare and Service Family Accommodation), national rate or business rate lines; and
(3) Potential recruits have a choice of ways to communicate with our careers staff, with increasing emphasis on Digital tools such as Live Chat and Social Media. Careers lines for the Army are now 03, and for the RAF both 0845 and 03. Royal Navy Careers are currently business rate (0845), but 03 numbers will be imminently available.
The MOD does of course have many other numbers, which are geographic or business rate (including the number for low flying complaints).
The MOD does not use any premium rate (09) numbers.
Asked by: Valerie Vaz (Labour - Walsall and Bloxwich)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many telephone lines with the prefix (a) 0845, (b) 0844 and (c) 0843 his Department (i) operates and (ii) sponsors; how many calls each such number has received in the last 12 months; and whether alternative numbers charged at BT local rates are available in each such case.
Answered by Anna Soubry
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 18 November 2013 (Official Report, column705W)
The number of calls to each number for the period 1 June 2013 to 31 May 2014 is provided in the table.
Telephone number prefix | Operated by DFTS | Sponsored by DFTS | How many calls received in last 12 months |
0845 | 3 | 18 | 347,258 |
0844 | 0 | 1 | 73 |
0843 | 0 | 0 | 0 |