Asked by: Angus Brendan MacNeil (Independent - Na h-Eileanan an Iar)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, where air traffic control is undertaken for trials at the Hebrides Range.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
Air traffic control for trials undertaken at the Hebrides Range is currently carried out from the Range Control facility on South Uist.
Asked by: Angus Brendan MacNeil (Independent - Na h-Eileanan an Iar)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many additional personnel visited the Hebrides Range in 2015 and 2017 for trials; and what estimate he has made of the number of additional personnel who will visit for trials in (a) 2018 and (b) 2019.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
Data is not held centrally and is not broken down to differentiate between those who attend for trials and visitors for other business purposes.
Asked by: Angus Brendan MacNeil (Independent - Na h-Eileanan an Iar)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many guards were employed at Hebrides Range in (a) 2010, (b) 2014 and (c) 2017; and what estimate he has made of the number of guards who will be employed in 2020.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
Fifteen guards were employed at Hebrides Range in 2010, 2014 and 2017 respectively. QinetiQ's sub-contractor is currently considering future guarding provision but no decisions have yet been made.
Asked by: Angus Brendan MacNeil (Independent - Na h-Eileanan an Iar)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many officials of his Department, its agencies and non-departmental public bodies have the word trade in their job title.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
As of 30 June 2017 a total of 1,063 civilian employees were recorded as having the word 'trade' in the job code description field on the Department's human resource management system.
Asked by: Angus Brendan MacNeil (Independent - Na h-Eileanan an Iar)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what his policy is on the revision of accommodation at the MOD Hebrides Range, West Camp, and the implications for staff at that faculty.
Answered by Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton
West Camp, Ministry of Defence Hebrides Range, is operated by QinetiQ under a commercial contract. Accommodation will be rationalised to align it to current and projected usage rates, as part of the Air Ranges Modernisation Project. This will also see significant investment in modern equipment for the range, including new radars. The savings, together with operating cost reductions, will allow investment in essential systems, thus helping to secure the future of the range for the longer term. The implications for QinetiQ employees and other staff will be managed by the company, which has indicated that there may be a small number of redundancies.
Asked by: Angus Brendan MacNeil (Independent - Na h-Eileanan an Iar)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what estimate he has made of the cost of adding a vertical take-off facility at the Hebrides Range to permit diversification into space ports.
Answered by Philip Dunne
No such estimates have been made by the Ministry of Defence.
Asked by: Angus Brendan MacNeil (Independent - Na h-Eileanan an Iar)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many non-UK (a) nations and (b) planes were flying combat missions in Syria against ISIS on the last date for which figures are available.
Answered by Michael Fallon
In addition to the UK, the other coalition partners that have flown combat missions in Syria against Daesh are the United States of America, Australia, Bahrain, Canada, France, Jordan, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. The number of aircraft that our coalition partners have in the region flying combat operations in Syria is not held by the MOD.
Asked by: Angus Brendan MacNeil (Independent - Na h-Eileanan an Iar)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many UK combat aircraft are flying combat missions against ISIS in (a) Syria and (b) Iraq.
Answered by Michael Fallon
The UK has 16 manned combat aircraft flying combat missions against Daesh in both Syria and Iraq. This number includes RAF Tornado and Typhoon aircraft. There are also a number of RAF Reaper Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) deployed to the Middle East that are flying combat missions in both Iraqi and Syrian airspace.
Asked by: Angus Brendan MacNeil (Independent - Na h-Eileanan an Iar)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the Prime Minister's oral contribution of 2 December 2015, Official Report, column 333, on ISIL in Syria, how many of the 70,000 fighters have presented themselves to work with UK forces.
Answered by Michael Fallon
I refer to the answer given by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister to the right hon. Member for New Forest East (Dr Julian Lewis) on 1 December 2015 to Question 18014.
Asked by: Angus Brendan MacNeil (Independent - Na h-Eileanan an Iar)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what plans he has to upgrade the Hebrides Range radar on St Kilda.
Answered by Philip Dunne
The Ministry of Defence's current planning assumption for the Watchman radar on the Hebrides Range is that it will be upgraded in November 2020.