Asked by: Lord Touhig (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many eviction notices have been served to tenants in Ministry of Defence owned properties (1) in each month since January, and (2) in each year from 2010 to 2020.
Answered by Baroness Goldie - Shadow Minister (Defence)
The Department does not issue eviction notices; these are issued and enforced by a court. The Department issues Notices to Vacate (NTV) in the following circumstances:
Service personnel to coincide with the final day of Service, or when their entitlement ceases due to personal circumstances.
Civilian sub-let tenants prior to the termination of their occupancy.
The annual number of NTV and enforcement actions required to regain possession from Service personnel/former Service personnel in Financial Year 2015 - 2019 was as follows:
(No centralised records were kept on the number of NTV and enforcement actions required to regain possession from Service personnel in Service Families Accommodation prior to 1 April 2015).
Period of time | Number of NTV issued | Number of enforcement actions |
1 April 2015 - 31 March 2016 | 2,330 | 114 |
1 April 2016 - 31 March 2017 | 2,108 | 43 |
1 April 2017 - 31 March 2018 | 2,264 | 58 |
1 April 2018 - 31 March 2019 | 2,558 | 51 |
1 April 2019 - 31 December 2019 | 1,611 | 37 |
The monthly number of NTV and enforcement actions required to regain possession from Service personnel/former Service personnel since January 2020 was as follows:
Period of time | Number of NTV issued | Number of enforcement actions |
January 2020 | 166 | 1 |
February 2020 | 105 | 1 |
March 2020 | 110 | 1 |
April – September 2020 | 0 | 1 |
The annual number of NTV and and enforcement actions required to regain possession from civilian sub-let tenants from Financial Year 2016 - 2019:
(The civilian sub-let programme started in 2016, and as such is reflected in the table below)
Period of time | Number of NTV issued | Number of enforcement actions |
1 January 2016 - 31 December 2016 | 0 | 0 |
1 January 2017 - 31 December 2017 | 1 | 0 |
1 January 2018 - 31 December 2018 | 0 | 0 |
1 January 2019 - 31 December 2019 | 8 | 3 |
The monthly number of NTV issued to civilian sub-let tenants since January 2019:
January 2020 | February 2020 | March - August 2020 | September 2020 |
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0 | 4 | 0 | 367 |
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Asked by: Lord Touhig (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many Armed Forces personnel are on standby to carry out door-to-door COVID 19 testing.
Answered by Baroness Goldie - Shadow Minister (Defence)
There are currently 739 Armed Forces personal at high readiness, or otherwise committed to supporting the national COVID response. Approximately 7,000 personnel will shortly be brought to readiness ahead of the Winter period.
Asked by: Lord Touhig (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how much was spent by the Ministry of Defence on consultancy fees in each year since 2010.
Answered by Baroness Goldie - Shadow Minister (Defence)
The information requested is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
The Ministry of Defence publishes spend over £25,000 on a monthly basis as part of its transparency data routine publication which is accessible at the link below:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/mod-finance-transparency-dataset
Additionally, the Ministry of Defence publishes annual accounts. The latest of which can be found at the link below:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/mod-annual-reports
Asked by: Lord Touhig (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to resume the recruitment to the Armed Forces of personnel born in Commonwealth countries.
Answered by Baroness Goldie - Shadow Minister (Defence)
Recruitment of Commonwealth citizens has never stopped. Prior to the COVID-19 Pandemic, both the Army and the Royal Air Force (RAF) had received large numbers of applications from Commonwealth citizens. The Army therefore stopped accepting new applications in September 2019 and the RAF stopped accepting applications from outside the UK in November 2019. The Royal Navy (RN)/Royal Marines (RM) has continued to accept new applications.
When the COVID-19 restrictions were implemented in March 2020, the RN/RM and RAF continued with the selection and initial training of all applicants who were already in the UK, including those from the Commonwealth. For those applicants based outside the UK, they continued to be proactively managed virtually, but their applications and the recruitment process could not be completed until candidates were once again able to fly to the UK and could meet any COVID-19 restrictions placed on their entry, such as quarantine measures.
The Army temporarily paused all face-to-face selection until June and all Basic Training until May, but applicants continued to be managed and nurtured. Since selection and training has resumed, the Army has continued to process those applicants already in the UK, and those who had applied prior to September 2019. The Army continues to have enough applications from Commonwealth citizens to meet demand for the current Recruiting Year, and will not therefore be accepting new applications, other than for the Royal Corps of Music.