Asked by: Rory Stewart (Independent - Penrith and The Border)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many UK (a) military personnel and (b) civilians have been (i) killed and (ii) wounded in Afghanistan in the last 13 years.
Answered by Mark Francois
Between 7 October 2001 and 17 December 2014, 453 UK military personnel have died on operations in Afghanistan.
Information regarding those killed and wounded in Afghanistan is published on the Government's website: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/op-herrick-casualty-and-fatality-tables-released-in-2014.
Nine UK civilians have been treated for injuries in Afghanistan or aeromedically evacuated by the Ministry of Defence (MOD). These are included within the published figures.
No MOD civilians have died on operations in Afghanistan.
Asked by: Rory Stewart (Independent - Penrith and The Border)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many weeks of cultural and historical training the average graduate of the Defence Cultural Specialist Unit course receives in addition to their language training.
Answered by Mark Francois
The Defence Cultural Specialist Unit is not a training establishment and therefore does not offer any courses in the generally accepted use of the term. Its role is to prepare and provide Cultural Specialists and Human Terrain Analysts for units at readiness or deploying on operations. The Unit works with a variety of organisations, including the Defence Centre for Language and Culture at the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom, to ensure that its personnel are appropriately trained to meet the UK's commitments.
After the completion of appropriate language training, which also includes elements of cultural and historical learning, a Cultural Specialist will receive, on average, between 3-5 weeks of cultural and historical training specific to their future role.
Since the Defence Cultural Specialist Unit was formed in 2010, 59 personnel have spent more than six months undertaking related studies. These are provided at a range of locations, including the Defence Centre for Language and Culture at the Defence Academy. As at 30 October 2014 the Unit had seven personnel undertaking cultural and historical training.
Asked by: Rory Stewart (Independent - Penrith and The Border)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many members of the armed forces have spent more than six months studying with the Defence Cultural Specialist Unit; and how many are studying now.
Answered by Mark Francois
The Defence Cultural Specialist Unit is not a training establishment and therefore does not offer any courses in the generally accepted use of the term. Its role is to prepare and provide Cultural Specialists and Human Terrain Analysts for units at readiness or deploying on operations. The Unit works with a variety of organisations, including the Defence Centre for Language and Culture at the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom, to ensure that its personnel are appropriately trained to meet the UK's commitments.
After the completion of appropriate language training, which also includes elements of cultural and historical learning, a Cultural Specialist will receive, on average, between 3-5 weeks of cultural and historical training specific to their future role.
Since the Defence Cultural Specialist Unit was formed in 2010, 59 personnel have spent more than six months undertaking related studies. These are provided at a range of locations, including the Defence Centre for Language and Culture at the Defence Academy. As at 30 October 2014 the Unit had seven personnel undertaking cultural and historical training.
Asked by: Rory Stewart (Independent - Penrith and The Border)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many people in the armed forces are in receipt of a Level (a) 3 and (b) 4 language allowance in Pashto.
Answered by Michael Fallon
The information requested is provided below:
Level 3 (Professional) Level | Level 4 (Expert) Level | |
Total Armed Forces Personnel currently in receipt of Language Allowance | 30 | 1 |
Total Armed Forces personnel currently in receipt of Language Allowance - Arabic | 6 | Nil |
Total Armed Forces personnel currently in receipt of Language Allowance - Pashto | 21 | 1 |
Total Armed Forces personnel currently in receipt of Language Allowance – Dari | 1 | Nil |
The information provided relates to the Defence Operational Allowance Language Award Scheme (DOLAS) and the Active Use Awards (AUA) under that scheme. Languages classified as Operational are Arabic, Pashto, Farsi, Dari and Somali. All other languages are not currently classified as Operational and therefore do not attract a language allowance payment within this scheme.
Asked by: Rory Stewart (Independent - Penrith and The Border)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many people in the armed forces are in receipt of a Level (a) 3 and (b) 4 language allowance.
Answered by Michael Fallon
The information requested is provided below:
Level 3 (Professional) Level | Level 4 (Expert) Level | |
Total Armed Forces Personnel currently in receipt of Language Allowance | 30 | 1 |
Total Armed Forces personnel currently in receipt of Language Allowance - Arabic | 6 | Nil |
Total Armed Forces personnel currently in receipt of Language Allowance - Pashto | 21 | 1 |
Total Armed Forces personnel currently in receipt of Language Allowance – Dari | 1 | Nil |
The information provided relates to the Defence Operational Allowance Language Award Scheme (DOLAS) and the Active Use Awards (AUA) under that scheme. Languages classified as Operational are Arabic, Pashto, Farsi, Dari and Somali. All other languages are not currently classified as Operational and therefore do not attract a language allowance payment within this scheme.
Asked by: Rory Stewart (Independent - Penrith and The Border)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many people in the armed forces are in receipt of a Level (a) 3 and (b) 4 language allowance in Dari.
Answered by Michael Fallon
The information requested is provided below:
Level 3 (Professional) Level | Level 4 (Expert) Level | |
Total Armed Forces Personnel currently in receipt of Language Allowance | 30 | 1 |
Total Armed Forces personnel currently in receipt of Language Allowance - Arabic | 6 | Nil |
Total Armed Forces personnel currently in receipt of Language Allowance - Pashto | 21 | 1 |
Total Armed Forces personnel currently in receipt of Language Allowance – Dari | 1 | Nil |
The information provided relates to the Defence Operational Allowance Language Award Scheme (DOLAS) and the Active Use Awards (AUA) under that scheme. Languages classified as Operational are Arabic, Pashto, Farsi, Dari and Somali. All other languages are not currently classified as Operational and therefore do not attract a language allowance payment within this scheme.
Asked by: Rory Stewart (Independent - Penrith and The Border)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many people in the armed forces are in receipt of a Level (a) 3 and (b) 4 language allowance in Arabic.
Answered by Michael Fallon
The information requested is provided below:
Level 3 (Professional) Level | Level 4 (Expert) Level | |
Total Armed Forces Personnel currently in receipt of Language Allowance | 30 | 1 |
Total Armed Forces personnel currently in receipt of Language Allowance - Arabic | 6 | Nil |
Total Armed Forces personnel currently in receipt of Language Allowance - Pashto | 21 | 1 |
Total Armed Forces personnel currently in receipt of Language Allowance – Dari | 1 | Nil |
The information provided relates to the Defence Operational Allowance Language Award Scheme (DOLAS) and the Active Use Awards (AUA) under that scheme. Languages classified as Operational are Arabic, Pashto, Farsi, Dari and Somali. All other languages are not currently classified as Operational and therefore do not attract a language allowance payment within this scheme.
Asked by: Rory Stewart (Independent - Penrith and The Border)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether regular service personnel who take out the standard Pax Policy life insurance are covered in the event of death in non-war fighting operations.
Answered by Michael Fallon
They are. Pax personal accident insurance covers bodily injury as a result of an accident that results in death, catastrophic injury, permanent disability, specified burns, specified fractures, flesh wounds or hospitalisation, while on, and off, duty worldwide, at any time. Pax policies also offer an Optional Life and Critical Illness insurance extension which, if purchased, covers death from natural causes and certain specific critical illnesses at any time. | |||||||
Asked by: Rory Stewart (Independent - Penrith and The Border)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many Afghan interpreters have been granted asylum since he announced in 2013 that the resettlement package for Afghan interpreters would extend to any interpreter serving for a year continuously up to December 2012.
Answered by Mark Francois
The ex- gratia redundancy scheme for locally engaged civilians (LECs) which was announced on 4 June 2013, includes a bespoke immigration arrangement specifically for Afghan LECs which is unrelated to the UK asylum system.
The ex-gratia scheme includes an offer of relocation to the UK for LECs who meet the relevant eligibility criteria. We estimate that up to 600 LECs will be eligible to apply for relocation via the ex-gratia scheme; the majority of these individuals will have been interpreters. Two have been granted visas; visa applications are being processed for another 269. Further applications will be processed as our remaining LECs are made redundant. We expect the first LECs to arrive in the UK later this summer.
Asked by: Rory Stewart (Independent - Penrith and The Border)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what information his Department holds on where the UK ranks worldwide in terms of its number of deployable forces.
Answered by Mark Francois
The Ministry of Defence does not hold comparative information on this topic, and conducting analysis of each nation's deployable force numbers is not straightforward. The Strategic Defence and Security Review 2010, our ongoing work to deliver the Future Force and emerging work on the Joint Expeditionary Force ensure that the UK has the appropriate number of deployable forces to meet our requirements. The UK does remain one of the very few countries that can deploy and sustain a brigade size force together with its air and maritime enablers, for intervention and enduring stabilisation operations, almost anywhere in the world. We can also deploy three brigades with air and maritime enablers, for a limited time and with sufficient warning, for a larger one-off intervention.