Asked by: Anne-Marie Trevelyan (Conservative - Berwick-upon-Tweed)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how long it would take and at what cost to replace an Astute class submarine.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
A decision on whether or not to acquire a replacement submarine would be taken in the light of the circumstances at the time. The cost and schedule of doing so would depend on the circumstances that created a requirement for a replacement.
Asked by: Anne-Marie Trevelyan (Conservative - Berwick-upon-Tweed)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many properties that are the responsibility of Defence Infrastructure Organisation have (a) mould and (b) asbestos.
Answered by Tobias Ellwood
At the present time, 426 Service Family Accommodation (SFA) properties have reported damp and mould issues. This is less than 1% of the overall SFA portfolio, and the continued reduction is being actively managed through robust arrangements.
Given the number of SFA properties built prior to 1970, around 34,300 homes (70%) still contain low risk asbestos containing materials (ACM). These are suspended in artex ceiling coatings, adhesive to floor tiles and external roof facias etc. Under our duty of care, the Ministry of Defence maintains an asbestos register and monitors closely the condition of ACM to ensure dangers are minimised. Of note, the English housing survey of 2014-2015 reported that 76% of all houses in England which were built before 1980 and approximately 18 million homes potentially contain ACM.
Asked by: Anne-Marie Trevelyan (Conservative - Berwick-upon-Tweed)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many personnel presently serving in the (a) Navy, (b) Army and (c) RAF have a spouse or family member who is a veteran, serving personnel or a reservist.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
This information is not held in the format requested. However, the Department does hold information on the number of Regular Service personnel who have chosen to declare that they are either married to, or in a registered civil partnership with, another Regular Service person. These figures are provided below, broken down by Service as at 1 February 2017:
Service | No of Regular Service Personnel |
Royal Navy/Royal Marines | 1,090 |
Army | 2,370 |
Royal Air Force | 2,210 |
Asked by: Anne-Marie Trevelyan (Conservative - Berwick-upon-Tweed)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many female military veterans there are by (a) county, (b) region, (c) service and (d) age range.
Answered by Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton
The Ministry of Defence estimates that in 2015 there were 2.56 million UK Armed Forces veterans residing in households across Great Britain (GB), of which 270,000 were female veterans. Of those, we estimate that 127,000 female veterans were under 65 years old, and 143,000 were older.
The numbers of female veterans living in GB by region (for England only) and in Scotland and Wales is provided below, estimated to the nearest thousand.
Number of Female Veterans
North East - 11,000
North West - 28,000
Yorkshire and the Humber - 29,000
East Midlands - 16,000
West Midlands - 22,000
East of England - 19,000
London - 11,000
South East - 50,000
South West - 43,000
Scotland - 24,000
Wales - 18,000
Total - 270,000
Source: Office of National Statistics 2015 Annual Population Survey
The sum of the parts does not equal the total due to rounding.
Information on the numbers of female veterans by county and by Service is not currently available.
Asked by: Anne-Marie Trevelyan (Conservative - Berwick-upon-Tweed)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the cost was to his Department of its e-bluey contract in each of the last 10 years; and how many e-blueys were sent in each of those years.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
The number of e-blueys sent in each of the last 10 years is set out below.
Calendar Year | Number of e-blueys |
2007 | 1,227,452 |
2008 | 986,473 |
2009 | 978,890 |
2010 | 971,285 |
2011 | 952,696 |
2012 | 832,035 |
2013 | 643,959 |
2014 | 173,622 |
2015 | 42,329 |
2016 | 36,279 |
Because we are working on a number of possible options to improve welfare connectivity on deployed operations, the cost of the current contract with SuperLetter.com is commercially sensitive.
Asked by: Anne-Marie Trevelyan (Conservative - Berwick-upon-Tweed)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, when he was made aware that the British Forces Post Office had cancelled its contact with SuperLetter.com to supply e-bluey.com.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
Ministers were advised in October 2016 that the contract with SuperLetter.com would be terminated as the service no longer provided value for money now that usage has declined by some 98% in recent years.
Asked by: Anne-Marie Trevelyan (Conservative - Berwick-upon-Tweed)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the number of (a) regular (i) soldiers, (ii) sailors and (iii) airmen and (b) reserve (A) soldiers, (B) sailors and (C) airmen was by medical category for each year since 2001.
Answered by Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton
Under the Armed Forces Medical Deployability Standard (MDS) categories, Medically Fully Deployable (MFD) personnel are those who are medically fit for duty with no employment limitations.
Medically Limited Deployable (MLD) personnel are those medically fit for duty with minor employment limitations. They may have a medical condition or functional limitation that prevents the meeting of all MFD requirements. Medically Not Deployable (MND) personnel are those medically fit for duty with major employment limitations. They are not fit to deploy on operations but may be deployable on UK based exercises.
The following table shows the number of UK Regular Armed Forces personnel by MDS category in each year from 2010 to 2016, as at 1 April. Like for like data is not available before 2010.
| All | MFD | MLD | MND | MDS Not Known |
1 April 2010 | |||||
All Services | 177,897 | 143,253 | 18,101 | 13,615 | 2,928 |
Naval Service | 35,502 | 28,366 | 1,843 | 2,938 | 2,355 |
Army | 102,261 | 80,546 | 14,786 | 6,736 | 193 |
RAF | 40,134 | 34,341 | 1,472 | 3,941 | 380 |
1 April 2011 | |||||
All Services | 176,816 | 143,278 | 18,828 | 13,800 | 910 |
Naval Service | 35,426 | 29,793 | 1,995 | 2,882 | 756 |
Army | 101,303 | 79,092 | 15,217 | 6,952 | 42 |
RAF | 40,087 | 34,393 | 1,616 | 3,966 | 112 |
1 April 2012 | |||||
All Services | 170,010 | 137,866 | 17,866 | 14,211 | 67 |
Naval Service | 33,287 | 28,428 | 1,786 | 2,866 | 207 |
Army | 98,598 | 76,781 | 14,319 | 7,480 | 18 |
RAF | 38,125 | 32,657 | 1,561 | 3,865 | 42 |
1 April 2013 | |||||
All Services | 160,712 | 130,770 | 15,464 | 14,352 | 126 |
Naval Service | 31,423 | 26,799 | 1,825 | 2,697 | 102 |
Army | 93,939 | 73,668 | 12,237 | 8,021 | 13 |
RAF | 35,350 | 30,303 | 1,402 | 3,634 | 11 |
1 April 2014 | |||||
All Services | 150,891 | 122,616 | 13,811 | 14,396 | 68 |
Naval Service | 30,509 | 25,866 | 1,732 | 2,859 | 52 |
Army | 87,176 | 68,564 | 10,667 | 7,938 | 7 |
RAF | 33,206 | 28,186 | 1,412 | 3,599 | 9 |
1 April 2015 | |||||
All Services | 144,117 | 116,125 | 13,401 | 14,547 | 44 |
Naval Service | 30,058 | 25,338 | 1,846 | 2,840 | 34 |
Army | 82,231 | 63,854 | 10,122 | 8,246 | 9 |
RAF | 31,828 | 26,933 | 1,433 | 3,461 | 1 |
1 April 2016 | |||||
All Services | 140,432 | 112,024 | 13,551 | 14,822 | 35 |
Naval Service | 29,702 | 24,850 | 1,932 | 2,892 | 28 |
Army | 79,746 | 61,431 | 10,001 | 8,308 | 6 |
RAF | 30,984 | 25,743 | 1,618 | 3,622 | 1 |
Data for Future Reserves 2020 personnel is available from 2013 to 2016 and is as follows:
| All | MFD | MLD | MND | MDS Not Known |
1 April 2013 | |||||
All Services | 29,388 | 24,514 | 2,322 | 1,422 | 1,130 |
Maritime Reserves | 2,610 | 2,196 | 68 | 49 | 297 |
Army Reserves | 25,238 | 21,056 | 2,232 | 1,290 | 660 |
RAF Reserves | 1,540 | 1,262 | 22 | 83 | 173 |
1 April 2014 | |||||
All Services | 28,147 | 22,935 | 2,554 | 1,480 | 1,178 |
Maritime Reserves | 2,850 | 2,335 | 106 | 69 | 340 |
Army Reserves | 23,578 | 19,278 | 2,409 | 1,319 | 572 |
RAF Reserves | 1,719 | 1,322 | 39 | 92 | 266 |
1 April 2015 | |||||
All Services | 30,814 | 23,898 | 2,770 | 1,564 | 2,582 |
Maritime Reserves | 3,157 | 2,457 | 121 | 74 | 505 |
Army Reserves | 25,438 | 19,884 | 2,592 | 1,392 | 1,570 |
RAF Reserves | 2,219 | 1,557 | 57 | 98 | 507 |
1 April 2016 | |||||
All Services | 34,755 | 26,180 | 3,105 | 1,676 | 3,794 |
Maritime Reserves | 3,541 | 2,883 | 131 | 104 | 423 |
Army Reserves | 28,672 | 21,398 | 2,888 | 1,480 | 2,906 |
RAF Reserves | 2,542 | 1,899 | 86 | 92 | 465 |
Future Reserves 2020 personnel include volunteer reserves who are mobilised, High Readiness Reserves and volunteer reserve personnel serving on Additional Duties Commitment or Full Time Reserve Service contracts. Future Reserves 2020 also include sponsored Reserves, but excludes Regular Reserves, Non Regular Permanent Staff, Expeditionary Forces Institute and University Officer Cadets.
Asked by: Anne-Marie Trevelyan (Conservative - Berwick-upon-Tweed)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, when his Department plans to publish its annual report on the Armed Forces Covenant.
Answered by Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton
The Ministry of Defence published the 2016 Armed Forces Covenant Annual Report today. This will help demonstrate that while more remains to be done this Nation is honouring its pledge to the Armed Forces Community past and present; this includes tangible progress made and support offered by Departments of State, Local Authorities, the Devolved Administrations, Businesses, Charities and society as a whole.
Asked by: Anne-Marie Trevelyan (Conservative - Berwick-upon-Tweed)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) has reimbursed CarillionAmey for the purchase of 3,000 boilers approved by DIO to ensure winter boiler breakdown requirements are met in accordance with key performance indicators; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton
The Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) has not reimbursed CarillionAmey for the purchase of any boilers. The replacement of 3,000 boilers has been directly funded by DIO under a capital works life cycle replacement programme and are scheduled for replacement in Service Family Accommodation (SFA) by March 2017. Approximately 1,000 boilers have already been replaced under this programme.
This is in addition to approximately 1,000 boilers being replaced by CarillionAmey as part of the National Housing Prime contract. Boiler replacement is a core service under this contract and thus will be paid for under the normal contractual arrangements.
By the end of Financial Year 2016-2017 approximately 5,585 SFA boilers will have been replaced in total under the above works.
In line with previous years, DIO is monitoring closely the heating situation within SFA during the winter months to ensure any potential problems are identified and resolved quickly.
Asked by: Anne-Marie Trevelyan (Conservative - Berwick-upon-Tweed)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the annual cost to the public purse is of sponsoring students at Wellbeck Defence Sixth Form.
Answered by Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton
The total annual cost to the public purse of sponsoring students at Wellbeck Defence Sixth Form College is £13million.