Asked by: Alison Seabeck (Labour - Plymouth, Moor View)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the annual targets are for recruitment to the Joint Cyber Reserve.
Answered by Julian Brazier
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 4 March 2015 to Question 225462.
http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-questions-answers/?page=1&max=20&questiontype=AllQuestions&house=commons%2clords&uin=225462
Asked by: Alison Seabeck (Labour - Plymouth, Moor View)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many people in (a) England, (b) Northern Ireland, (c) Scotland and (d) Wales (i) have benefited and (ii) are expected to benefit from the LIBOR funding for armed forces and veterans' organisations that has been granted in each tranche to date.
Answered by Anna Soubry
For information on the distribution of the £35 million LIBOR Fund and the £40 million Veterans Accommodation Fund, I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 3 March 2015, to Question 221590 to the hon. Member for Gedling (Mr Coaker).
http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2015-01-21/221590/
Subsequent to that answer there been two further announcements about LIBOR funded projects:
Gurkha Homes Project: £960,000 to Gurkha Homes Limited for various locations across England.
Scottish Veterans' Garden City Association (SVGCA) Future Shared Ownership Consortium: £551,190 for Houses for Heroes in Scotland.
As the hon. Member will have seen, the Chancellor announced in the Budget on 18 March that a total of £450 million of LIBOR fines had been used by this Government to support the Service charities and other good causes, including a further £75 million of funding over the next five years.
The Ministry of Defence does not hold information on the numbers of people who have benefited, or who may benefit, from this funding. However, given the scope of some of these projects, we anticipate that - at a minimum - this will run into the tens of thousands.
Asked by: Alison Seabeck (Labour - Plymouth, Moor View)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much LIBOR funding to date has been awarded to organisations or projects that benefit from the wider armed forces community (a) nationwide, (b) in England, (c) in Northern Ireland, (d) in Scotland and (e) in Wales.
Answered by Anna Soubry
For information on the distribution of the £35 million LIBOR Fund and the £40 million Veterans Accommodation Fund, I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 3 March 2015, to Question 221590 to the hon. Member for Gedling (Mr Coaker).
http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2015-01-21/221590/
Subsequent to that answer there been two further announcements about LIBOR funded projects:
Gurkha Homes Project: £960,000 to Gurkha Homes Limited for various locations across England.
Scottish Veterans' Garden City Association (SVGCA) Future Shared Ownership Consortium: £551,190 for Houses for Heroes in Scotland.
As the hon. Member will have seen, the Chancellor announced in the Budget on 18 March that a total of £450 million of LIBOR fines had been used by this Government to support the Service charities and other good causes, including a further £75 million of funding over the next five years.
The Ministry of Defence does not hold information on the numbers of people who have benefited, or who may benefit, from this funding. However, given the scope of some of these projects, we anticipate that - at a minimum - this will run into the tens of thousands.
Asked by: Alison Seabeck (Labour - Plymouth, Moor View)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many reserves have been called up for service since the Strategic Defence and Security Review 2010; where those reserves have served; and in what capacity those reserves served.
Answered by Julian Brazier
Since 2010 more than 10,000 Reservists have been mobilised in a variety of roles on operations worldwide including Iraq, Afghanistan and the London 2012 Olympics.
As at 28 February 2015, around 400 Reservists are mobilised. More than 60 Reservists have been mobilised so far to assist in efforts to resolve the Ebola crisis in Sierra Leone. The majority of these are Army Reservists filling medical roles in the Kerry Town Treatment Unit and who I saw depart the UK last December, from Brize Norton.
Asked by: Alison Seabeck (Labour - Plymouth, Moor View)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many cases of non-compliance relating to the return of dangerous goods from Afghanistan there have been in the last 12 months.
Answered by Mark Francois - Shadow Minister (Defence)
There have been no recorded incidents of non-compliances relating to the return of dangerous goods from Afghanistan within the last twelve months.
However, during that period, staff at Bastion and Kandahar identified 40 instances of potential non-compliance at the time of acceptance checks; all were corrected before the consignments entered the transport chain.
Asked by: Alison Seabeck (Labour - Plymouth, Moor View)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking to increase the number of people qualified and experienced in munitions and explosives.
Answered by Philip Dunne
The Ministry of Defence provides a wide range of training and education to meet our demand for suitably qualified and experienced personnel specialising in ordnance, munitions and explosives, including specialist courses run by the Defence Academy and military schools, together with apprentice and graduate schemes. We are also working with other organisations in the ordnance, munitions and explosives sector to understand our long term requirements and invest throughout the sector, including through joint training events.
Asked by: Alison Seabeck (Labour - Plymouth, Moor View)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, when he requests the Single Source Regulation Office to perform additional analysis, on the basis of information it has received or generated, but which it is not required to perform, who pays for this analysis; and what estimate he has made of the costs of that analysis to his Department.
Answered by Philip Dunne
The Defence Reform Act (DRA) 2014 grants the Ministry of Defence (MOD) the power to request the Single Source Regulations Office (SSRO) to undertake additional analysis of the standard reports provided to it by industry. To date, the MOD has not made any such request to the SSRO.
Since such work would fall outside the core responsibilities of the SSRO, the MOD would be required to pay the SSRO for any additional costs arising. It is too soon after the implementation of the DRA to make any worthwhile estimate of the potential costs to the MOD.
Asked by: Alison Seabeck (Labour - Plymouth, Moor View)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps are taken to ensure that ammunition used on firing ranges is fully and properly accounted for; and what amount of ammunition has not been accounted for in each of the three services in each of the last five years.
Answered by Anna Soubry
The Ministry of Defence (MOD) takes the security and accounting of its ammunition very seriously. The MOD therefore has in place mechanisms to ensure that only units and individuals which are allowed to draw and use specific types of ammunition can do so. In addition to this, the MOD operates a rigorous internal audit system to ensure that ammunition can be accounted for at all stages of the supply chain. This includes both formal inventory checking within ammunition stores and confirmatory checks at the end of a range session; the latter includes a declaration requiring individuals to confirm they have no ammunition in their possession. The Service Police Crime Bureau has recorded all reported losses, thefts, and recoveries of MOD ammunition since 2011. Centrally held figures prior to 2011 are not available and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. The amount of lost and stolen ammunition is shown in the following table.
2011 | 2012 | 2013 | Total | |
Lost 9mm | 13 | 164 | 60 | 237 |
Lost 5.56mm | 247 | 602 | 1,473 | 2,322 |
Lost 7.62mm | 0 | 0 | 210 | 210 |
Lost .22mm | 0 | 0 | 55 | 55 |
Lost L35A3 105mm | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Lost 12.7mm | 0 | 29 | 0 | 29 |
Stolen 9mm | 23 | 0 | 15 | 38 |
Stolen 5.56mm | 90 | 1 | 280 | 371 |
Stolen 7.62mm | 200 | 0 | 30 | 230 |
Full year data for 2014 is not yet available.
Asked by: Alison Seabeck (Labour - Plymouth, Moor View)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what estimate he has made of the cost of the fence in Barne Barton proposed in Plymouth City Council planning application 14/02413/FUL.
Answered by Anna Soubry
This project is still subject to the planning application process. I am withholding the estimated cost as its release could prejudice the commercial interests of the Department.
Asked by: Alison Seabeck (Labour - Plymouth, Moor View)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many vehicles within each group, included in his Department's contract made as a result of the sale of the Defence Support Group, need to be kept at readiness under that contract; whether the level of that readiness is decided by (a) the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre or (b) him; and whether that contract contains provisions to allow that number to be changed in response to changing security threat situations.
Answered by Philip Dunne
The Department's contract made as a result of the sale of the Defence Support Group does not set readiness levels for keeping vehicles.