Ministry of Defence

The Ministry of Defence is committed to developing and deploying AI-enabled systems responsibly and promoting responsible use worldwide.

The UK will work with allies and partners to address the issue of proliferation of advanced military technologies such as AI-enabled autonomous capabilities. This will include reinforcement of the disarmament and export control regimes, treaties and organisations; development of the means of preventing AI proliferation or misuse; and monitoring the risks of AI exacerbating existing counter-proliferation and arms control challenges. This will ensure that the opportunities gained from the development and integration of new technologies are balanced with appropriate controls.

Our position on fully autonomous weapon systems is clear and unchanged. The UK does not possess fully autonomous weapon systems and has no intention of developing them.

When deploying autonomous weapon systems we will always ensure meaningful and context-appropriate human involvement across the system lifecycle from development to deployment, ensuring human responsibility for outcomes.

The deployment in armed conflict of any weapon system - including one with autonomous functions - which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians would be contrary to International Humanitarian LAW (IHL) and therefore unlawful. We strongly believe that AI and autonomy within weapon systems can and must be used lawfully and ethically. Autonomous systems have the potential to support the better application of IHL by improving the evidence, analysis and timeliness of decision making.

We regularly engage with a wide range of stakeholders on lethal autonomous weapon systems (LAWS), including those - such as the International Committee of the Red Cross - that believe a new legally binding instrument on LAWS is necessary. The UK does not support calls for a legally binding instrument on LAWS. Our view remains that International Humanitarian Law (IHL) provides a robust, principle-based framework for the regulation of weapons development and use, and we will continue to engage at the UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons seeking to clarify the prohibitions and positive obligations around the use of autonomous weapon systems under IHL.

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) revised its malaria prevention policy in response to the Defence Select Committee Inquiry. As a result, it remains the policy that mefloquine only be prescribed to Service personnel by a doctor, after a face-to-face malaria health risk assessment and alternatives to mefloquine have been identified as unsuitable. There are no plans for this policy to change in the future.

The Government publishes official statistics every six months on Mefloquine Prescribing in UK Armed Forces. All future official statistics will include the supplementary table requested.

It is admitted, on the balance of probabilities, that as a prophylactic mefloquine can cause a range of minor to moderate psychiatric symptoms in certain individuals for a limited period of time. The causal relation between mefloquine and severe or long-term symptoms has not been shown. Whether it has caused any symptoms in individual cases will be a matter for expert evidence.

The issue of longer-term sequelae is currently being litigated and the MOD has the support of eminent experts in the fields of psychiatry, neuro-psychiatry, epidemiology, neurotoxicology and psychopharmacology whose evidence is privileged and will be disclosed in due course within the litigation. Their evidence is consistent in its conclusion that there is insufficient evidence to establish a link between taking mefloquine and long-term psychiatric illness or neurological damage.

We are planning for the publication of the Defence Space Strategy to happen soon.

The Enduring Capability requirement consists of two elements: the satellites and the ground-based infrastructure. Both are important investments within the Defence Space Strategy, giving opportunity to lever the best of UK space research and development. This will deliver long term innovative solutions for the which can overcome the increasingly hostile threats that we face in space.

We continue to refine the Enduring Capability satellite requirement and procurement approach. As part of this refinement, we will be undertaking further industry engagement which will inform the satellite programme timeline.

The exact timings for the ground-based elements are dependent on the final agreements reached on the preceding programme of ground and flight control provision (the Service Delivery Wrap, which is currently being competed).

The current number of UK industry jobs supporting the Chinook helicopter fleet is estimated to exceed 450 across the UK defence supply chain. This includes around 100 jobs under the contract with BDUK to install state-of-the-art Infra-Red Suppression Systems across some of the Chinook fleet.

The UK and US Governments reached agreement in March 2021 to procure a future Chinook Capability as part of the Chinook Capability Sustainment Programme. This long-term investment is highly likely to provide sustainment of UK supply chain jobs and opportunities in the support of the Chinook Platform.

The current number of UK industry jobs supporting the Chinook helicopter fleet is estimated to exceed 450 across the UK defence supply chain. This includes around 100 jobs under the contract with BDUK to install state-of-the-art Infra-Red Suppression Systems across some of the Chinook fleet.

The UK and US Governments reached agreement in March 2021 to procure a future Chinook Capability as part of the Chinook Capability Sustainment Programme. This long-term investment is highly likely to provide sustainment of UK supply chain jobs and opportunities in the support of the Chinook Platform.

Detailed planning for Operation ISOTROPE is underway and further information, including relating to periodic data reporting, will be announced in due course.

Planned upgrades at Menwith Hill and Fairford will be funded by the United States.

An approximation of planned upgrade costs can be found below.

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) works closely with the National Cyber Security Centre and other government departments in support of national defence purposes. The Department is funding the delivery of transformative defensive cyber capabilities through a range of transformation programmes - both cyber defence specific and those delivering the wider digital transformation of the MOD.

The Defence Cyber School is upskilling MOD and government personnel with the tech capabilities needed for cyber professional roles, and our Cyber Confident initiative is delivering improved training and awareness for all, so that our people are an effective frontline of defence.

We have put in place a comprehensive program of activity to modernise and stay current in the face of a dynamic risk profile. These measures, co-ordinated across the whole Department and in partnership with other government experts, focus on enhancing skills, processes and technology to strengthen the ability of the MOD to prevent, detect, respond and recover from cyber-attack.

Within the UK, the safety and security of individual pieces of critical national infrastructure is the responsibility of the relevant commercial operator and Police force for the geographical area in which it is located. At the strategic level, the department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) is responsible for the overall operation and resilience of the UK's domestic energy sector. The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) is responsible for the overall operation and resilience of the UK's water sector. The Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure (CPNI) provides advice on the resilience of Critical National Infrastructure across the UK.

The Ministry of Defence and the UK Armed Forces are responsible for the security and territorial integrity of the UK as a whole. Defence of the UK and its overseas territories from the malicious intent of our adversaries is the first task of the Ministry of Defence and our Armed Forces. This extends to being prepared to defend against and counter external hostile threats to our way of life and the delivery of critical services. I would, however, like to reassure you that I have received no indication that the Armed Forces would be required to provide protection water plants, power plants, or to other critical national infrastructure in the foreseeable future.

Detailed plans for operation ISOTROPE are under development and further information will be made available to the House in due course. This may include making available additional naval surface or air capabilities, and procurement or leasing activity will be considered as needed.

Thanks to this collaboration good progress has been made in developing AI and Autonomy tools for use against priority operational challenges and scenarios. The latest milestone event (along with a review conducted by the deputy principles) was held in October 2021, demonstrating how the UK and US can integrate AI technology to create an end-to-end machine learning research development and deployment ecosystem, enabling rapid data-sharing and algorithm development, evaluation and deployment: . A report was published and is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/news/us-and-uk-research-labs-collaborate-on-autonomy-and-ai.

We do not intend to place the Project Arrangement in the House Library. The hon. Member may also wish to be aware that the Project Arrangement would fall within the scope of the qualified exemption provided for at Section 27 (International Relations) of the Freedom of Information Act. I am therefore withholding the information as its disclosure would or would be likely to prejudice relations between the United Kingdom and another State.

The United Kingdom does not possess, and has no intention of developing fully autonomous systems which operate without human intervention in the weapon command and control chain.

When deploying autonomous weapon systems, we will always ensure meaningful and context-appropriate human involvement across the system lifecycle from development to deployment, ensuring human responsibility for outcomes.

Ministers and officials hold regular meetings with defence contractors and suppliers, including BAE Systems and Babcock to discuss a variety of subjects, including frigate programmes.

The omitted estimates and data for jobs supported by Ministry of Defence expenditure have been delayed due to a delay in the availability of the latest employment and turnover data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), caused by the impact of COVID-19 on the ONS Business Surveys. The ONS figures are required for the calculation of employment estimates. Subject to the availability of data from the ONS, we estimate that we will be able publish a revision of the bulletin to include the jobs estimates for 2020-21 in early summer 2022.

I responded to the hon. Member on 25 January 2022.

As announced on 1 September 2021, four consortia, all of which include significant UK involvement, have been awarded Fleet Solid Support (FSS) ship Competitive Procurement Phase contracts to mature their proposals. The project is on track to receive final manufacture tenders in July 2022. The Ministry of Defence expects to be able to award a manufacture contract for the FSS ships within two years of competition launch in May 2021.

Detailed planning for Operation ISOTROPE is underway and further detail will be announced in due course. The capabilities that Defence makes available for this task are likely to include the same classes of naval vessels and airborne intelligence and surveillance assets that have previously supported the Home Office with countering small boat migration in the Channel.

The Royal Navy's role will focus on efficient command and coordination of cross-Government assets to improve surveillance, detection and interception capabilities. No new legal powers for the Navy are envisaged at this time.

The Ministry of Defence publishes this information quarterly and annually through the Cabinet Office. The quarterly and annual information for 2017-2020 is available on the gov.uk website. The annual Freedom of Information Statistics for 2021 will be published in spring 2022. However, the first three quarters for 2021 are available on gov.uk.

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/government-foi-statistics.

Between 1 April 2009 and 31 March 2021:

Of the 107,882 disablement claims cleared at initial review under the War Pension Scheme (WPS), 34,965 (32%) were declined. During this period 11,748 tribunal decisions were made. 7,016 (60%) of which were rejected by the Tribunal and found in the Department's favour.

Declined initial reviews include rejected first and second/subsequent disablement claims and maintained assessments at second/subsequent claim. Declined tribunal decisions include disallowed disablement entitlement appeals and maintained assessment appeals. Both exclude reduced assessments.

Please note, there is no internal appeals process under the WPS and as such an answer to question (ii) cannot be provided.

Of the 94,426 injury/illness claims cleared under the AFCS, 29,615 (31%) were initially rejected. Of the 18,921 reconsiderations cleared under the AFCS, 13,993 (74%) were declined. During this period 7,550 tribunal appeals were cleared. 3,561 (47%) of which were rejected and found in the Department's favour.

Declined reconsiderations and tribunal appeals includes disallowed and maintained claims but excludes reduced awards.

The number of disablement claims registered under the War Pension Scheme (WPS) and the number of injury/illness claims registered under the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme (AFCS) in each financial year from 2009-10 to 2020-21 is presented in Table 1.

Table 1: Registered Disablement¹ claims under the War Pension Scheme and Registered Injury/Illness claims under the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme, by financial year², numbers- 1 April 2009 – 31 March 2021

Source: War Pension Computer System (WPCS) and Compensation and Pension System (CAPS)

1. Disablement claims include both First and Second/Subsequent claims.

2. By financial year of claim registered.

3. Injury/Illness claims registered by the service person. Survivors’ Claims are not included in this response.

4. These figures exclude registered events which end up being cancelled or withdrawn. However, there were 1,703 registered initial injury/illness claims which were pending as at 31 March 2021, many of which may end up being removed.

Following the Integrated Review, the Boxer fleet will be an integral part of the new Armoured Brigade Combat Teams. The decision on which British Army infantry battalion will be the first to receive the vehicles is yet to be confirmed.

The Ministry of Defence is not able to release financial information regarding forecasted TDEL (whole life costs) for the MORPHEUS programme as it would prejudice our ability to conduct future negotiations with Industry in order to deliver best value for money.

A decision has not been taken on where the replacement will be manufactured, as consideration of the replacement options has not yet completed.

The total financial approval for the AESA radar is £818.9 million and this is intended to deliver a prototype European Common Radar System (ECRS) Mk2 radar ready for flight trials and critical design review for the ECRS Mk2 production radar.

The strategic intent to continue ECRS Mk2 development and integrate the radar onto Typhoon was confirmed in the Defence Command Paper. However, the investment required to do so is subject to final approval.

I refer the right hon. Member to the answer I gave him on 20 January 2022 to Question 105386.

The requirements for a replacement to the SA80 family of weapons are currently being investigated. The Army, working with the other services, is leading on this process.

The repair to restore the heating in the College Hall Officers' Mess at RAF Cranwell is a long-term solution. Additional work is planned to mitigate against future pipework issues, which, in turn will ease any future maintenance.

The SA80’s current Out of Service Date is 2030.

As confirmed by the Secretary of State in the future soldier announcement, units will start to receive their first vehicles from 2023.

All future shipbuilding programmes will consider alternative fuel options and sustainability efficiencies within their designs as well as technologies for measuring and optimising power consumption. At this stage, there are no plans to adopt hydrogen propulsion for the Royal Navy's existing small vessel fleet.

The Royal Air Force and Royal Norwegian Air Force maintain strong links, especially in respect of P-8A Poseidon. However, there are no arrangements currently in place between the Royal Air Force and the Royal Norwegian Air Force to share facilities to maintain their respective P-8A Poseidon Fleets, and none are currently planned.

The F-35 Lightning uses Aviation Fuel at a similar consumption rate to comparable Combat Aircraft. However, it offers large advantages over legacy aircraft fleets like Tornado GR4, and a far greater proportion of routine training can now be achieved in highly realistic simulators, that for previous legacy fleets would have required additional reliance on live flying. The RAF continues to work to enhance this Synthetic Operational Training environment through Next Generation Operational Training (NGOT) and Programme Gladiator, further reducing its reliance on live flying to meet routine training goals.

Working closely with the Defence Strategic Fuels Authority, industry and academia, the RAF is also leading research and trials of the next generation of Sustainable Aviation Fuels and future Synthetic Fuels.

Under Operation ISOTROPE, Defence's role is to enhance the UK's ability to respond to all irregular immigration and safety of life at sea incidents in the English Channel. Our planning assumptions are for persons intercepted in the Channel to be escorted to the UK in a safe and controlled manner, for onward processing.

The Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) remains the appropriate forum to address the challenges associated with the use of autonomy in weapon systems. The CCW Review Conference renewed the mandate of the Group of Government Experts on Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems (LAWS) and the UK will continue to play an active role in it, working with the international community to agree norms and positive obligations to ensure the safe and responsible use of autonomy.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 25 November 2021 to Question 76874 to the right hon. Member for North Durham (Mr Kevan Jones).

I refer the right hon. Member to the answer I gave him on 24 January 2022 to Question 105379.

There may be a requirement for the deployment of Royal Navy vessels to help to counter illegal migrant crossings, and Defence has a range of capabilities that may be called upon to contribute to this objective. Detailed planning for Operation ISOTROPE is underway and further detail will be announced in due course.

The Home Secretary and Foreign Secretary remain responsible for engagement and negotiations with the French on our future relationship with regards to stemming irregular migration between Europe and the United Kingdom. The defence relationship with France remains strong, and Ministers engage with their French counterparts regularly on areas of joint interest.

The UK and France enjoy a strong defence and security relationship with many areas of shared interest, from operations in the Sahel to tackling the criminal networks behind people trafficking. The decision to give our Navy primacy over countering illegal Channel crossings will contribute to the common goals of both the UK and France to tackle this abhorrent activity.