Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether his Department has plans to use the WTO’s Government Procurement Agreement to exempt defence contracts from international public procurement rules after the end of the transition period.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
Since 2012, the Governments default position of defence procurement has been open competition wherever appropriate to obtain the best capability for our Armed Forces, whilst achieving value for money for the taxpayer.
The Ministry of Defence is leading the cross-Government review into the UK’s defence and security industrial sectors to ensure our approach enables competitive, innovative and world-class defence and security industries. The terms of any national security exemption will be part of that review.
Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment has he made of the potential merits of using the WTO's Government Procurement Agreement's defence exemption instead of the EU defence directives’ exemption.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
Since 2012, the Governments default position of defence procurement has been open competition wherever appropriate to obtain the best capability for our Armed Forces, whilst achieving value for money for the taxpayer.
The Ministry of Defence is leading the cross-Government review into the UK’s defence and security industrial sectors to ensure our approach enables competitive, innovative and world-class defence and security industries. The terms of any national security exemption will be part of that review.
Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps the Government is taking to minimise the spread of covid-19 on UK military bases overseas.
Answered by James Heappey
The Ministry of Defence has stringent measures in place to safeguard our people and reduce the risks to them and their families on UK Bases. Many of our people – both civilian and military – are working from home and where they to come into work, we have adjusted their working environment to meet Public Health England’s (PHE) guidelines. Furthermore, we have taken all reasonable precautions to ensure that the PHE’s guidelines on social distancing, self-isolation protocols, the cleaning of communal areas and personal hygiene are adhered to. Defence personnel are included in the national testing programme.
Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps the Government is taking to minimise the spread of covid-19 on UK military bases in the UK.
Answered by James Heappey
The Ministry of Defence has stringent measures in place to safeguard our people and reduce the risks to them and their families on UK Bases. Many of our people – both civilian and military – are working from home and where they to come into work, we have adjusted their working environment to meet Public Health England’s (PHE) guidelines. Furthermore, we have taken all reasonable precautions to ensure that the PHE’s guidelines on social distancing, self-isolation protocols, the cleaning of communal areas and personal hygiene are adhered to. Defence personnel are included in the national testing programme.
Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps the Government is taking to minimise the risk of covid-19 amongst personnel in the Royal Navy Submarine Service.
Answered by James Heappey
Mitigation measures are being put in place to minimise the risk of COVID-19 onboard a submarine and to maintain the health and wellbeing of their ships' companies. The Submarine Service is following Public Health England (PHE) guidelines where practical for all personnel and, to reduce the risk of transmission, further emphasis is being placed on the cleaning of communal areas and personal hygiene. Measures have been introduced prior to sailing which involve the whole ship's company quarantining onboard the submarine. In addition, personnel who are, or whose households are, symptomatic will be isolated before embarking, in accordance with PHE self-isolation guidelines.
Any individual who experiences symptoms while at sea will isolate onboard in accordance with PHE guidelines and receive the appropriate medical attention, until either recovery is established or they can be safely removed and returned to shore.
Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking to reduce, refine and replace the use of animals for warfare experiments in Porton Down and other facilities which engage in such testing.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) at Porton Down, Wiltshire, is licensed by the Home Office to conduct the Ministry of Defence’s (MOD) in-house research involving the use of animals.
The Home Office only allows testing if it is clear that the benefits outweigh the harms, and that the principles of the 3Rs (Replacement, Reduction and Refinement) have been fully taken into account and will be implemented.
Dstl operates in accordance with the principles of the 3Rs, and has an active programme to increase 3Rs implementation. For example, Dstl has developed an in-vitro method to measure the biological activity of anti-toxin medical countermeasures and has recently agreed with the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency that our new tissue culture can replace animals in the future.
In 2015, Dstl was part of a five-organisation partnership with the National Centre for the Replacement Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research, which published a roadmap on developing and applying non-animal technologies (NATs) to improve the methods and ways of testing the safety and effectiveness of pharmaceuticals, veterinary products, chemicals, agrichemicals and consumer products.