Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Policy Paper Ambitious, safe, responsible: Our approach to the delivery of AI-enabled capability in Defence, published on 15 June, in particular the statement that "there must be context-appropriate human involvement in weapons which identify, select and attack targets", whether users need to understand the effects of using the weapons in each specific context for such use to be acceptable.
Answered by Baroness Goldie
The MOD has set out a clear commitment to develop and use AI-enabled military capabilities - including, potentially, weapons systems - safely, responsibly, and ethically. This includes ensuring that commanders and the operators of AI-enabled systems are trained to understand the appropriate parameters of use in relation to their specific domain and operating context.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the report by the International Committee of the Red Cross ICRC on autonomous weapons systems published on 12 May 2021, in particular the statement that "in light of ethical considerations to safeguard humanity and to uphold International Humanitarian Law, rules for the protection of civilians and combatants hors de combat, the use of autonomous weapons systems to target human beings should be ruled out"; and what assessment they have made of systems that identify people as targets based on (1) biometrics, and (2) perceived (a) gender, (b) race, and (c) age.
Answered by Baroness Goldie
As we embed our Artificial Intelligence (AI) policy frameworks we will continue working with external stakeholders (including the International Committee of the Red Cross and our independent AI Ethics Advisory Panel) to ensure our approach reflects best practice and complies with our obligations. Systems that are designed to identify people as targets based on only biometrics, and perceived gender, race, and age are very unlikely to comply with the requirements of International Humanitarian Law.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to support an international Political Declaration on the use of explosive weapons in populated areas.
Answered by Baroness Goldie
The UK will take a view on our support of the international Political Declaration on the use of explosive weapons in populated areas once its final form is known.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have regarding the storage of retired nuclear submarines after the last slot at 3 Basin Devonport is filled by the arrival of HMS Trenchant.
Answered by Baroness Goldie
There is existing capacity and capability at Devonport to safely store all decommissioned submarines up to and including the Trafalgar Class. Beyond this, the requirements for storage of future decommissioned submarines is being considered.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that individuals in Mali at personal risk through their involvement with British forces and officials can be extracted and resettled if necessary.
Answered by Baroness Goldie
The UK has a small number of contracted interpreters supporting UK personnel in Mali and we take their personal security very seriously. Our contracting standards require that people must be as safe and secure as reasonably possible when working in our support. We are not aware of an immediate threat to UK contractors at this time.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to hamper the global activities of (1) the Wagner Group, a Russian private military company, and (2) other similar organisations.
Answered by Baroness Goldie
It is clear that the Wagner Group and other similar organisations do not provide enduring security. Her Majesty's Government (HMG) will continue to attribute and expose where Wagner or other organisations undermine security and commit human rights abuses.
In December 2021, the UK issued a statement with 15 international partners to firmly condemn the deployment of the Wagner Group in Mali, which we believe can only further deteriorate the security environment.
In 2020, HMG placed an asset freeze and travel ban on an individual closely associated with Wagner Group, Yevgeniy Viktorovich Prigozhin, following his support to the Group's activities in Libya, where they were involved in multiple and repeated breaches of the arms embargo in Libya established in UNSCR 1970.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what progress they have made in identifying the graves of more than 10,000 Egyptians who died in the service of the British Empire during World War One, including those in the Egyptian Labour Corps.
Answered by Baroness Goldie
In April 2021, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) published its Special Committee’s report into historical inequalities in commemoration. The CWGC continues to make good progress against the report’s ten recommendations. Documents recently discovered by the CWGC’s dedicated research team put the number of personnel from the Egyptian Labour and the Camel Transport Corps who lost their lives in the Middle East during the First World War at just over 15,550. Very few of these were known to have marked graves and the names of the majority were, and are, unknown to the CWGC.
Although one aspect of the CWGC’s response to the report is to search for missing burials (and where they can be located and marked, they will be), the CWGC is initially focused on the discovery of names so that individuals’ service and sacrifice can be properly recorded and acknowledged. The CWGC have established that records and named lists of Egyptian personnel were passed by the British Armed Forces to the then Egyptian authorities so that pensions and compensation could be paid. The CWGC hope that these records might yet be found in Egyptian archival collections and the CWGC is making progress in tracking these records down.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to signing up to the “Peace Dividend Campaign”.
Answered by Baroness Goldie
The first responsibility of Government is to protect its citizens.
Defence is one of a full spectrum of levers that we routinely use - alongside diplomatic, intelligence, economic, legal and strategic communication tools. For example, Defence continues to play a direct role in humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, most recently through ongoing Royal Navy support to the international disaster relief efforts following the tsunami in Tonga; and last year providing a Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessel to assist the US humanitarian aid mission in Haiti. Our Armed Forces are also always ready to respond to requests to support civil authorities, and from vaccine supply logistics to front line medical support they have played a critical role in supporting the response to the COVID pandemic.
We must stay ahead of the increasingly complex threats to our people and allies by investing in, rather than cutting, defence budgets. That is why we are increasing defence spending by over £24 billion over the next four years.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to conduct a post-construction environmental impact assessment of their new port at Duqm in Oman; whether they have made any assessment of the (1) overall environmental impact, and (2) impact on Arabian humpback whales, of the visit of HMS Queen Elizabeth to that port.
Answered by Baroness Goldie
The Omani Port of Duqm Company administers the port and the Ministry of Defence has, and will continue to, comply with all relevant Omani and UK environmental regulations. This includes environmental impact assessments, if required, for all UK Defence activity at the port. The Port of Duqm Company has conducted an environmental health survey and the UK and Oman have a regular dialogue which encompasses a wide range of topics, including the environment.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they receive royalty payments for equipment manufacture by Sage Control Ordnance under licence from Police Ordnance Co Ltd in Canada where the equipment was originally designed by Royal Ordnance.
Answered by Baroness Goldie
The Ministry of Defence does not receive royalty payments for equipment manufactured by Sage Control Ordnance under licence from Police Ordnance Co Ltd in Canada, where the equipment was originally designed by Royal Ordnance.