Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of the COVID Support Force in supporting public services.

Defence's COVID Support Force (CSF) was established to provide support, expertise and resilience to the NHS and other Government Departments to assure the continued delivery of public services as part of HMG's response to COVID-19.

In total, Defence has responded to 161 Military Aid to Civilian Authority (MACA) requests, involving nearly 4,000 military personnel. Through the MACA process, Defence has supplied clinical support to the NHS, logistics support to the national PPE distribution effort and support to testing (including the rapid establishment of a Mobile Testing capability), and has provided expert planning support to a number of Government Departments.

Support to the?Government's?COVID-19?response?is the Ministry of Defence's main effort; Defence is committed to supporting the national effort to tackle Covid-19 and continues to aid other Government Departments such as the Department for Health and Social Care whilst ensuring that critical Defence outputs continue to be delivered.