Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee West)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the impact of the cyber attack against Capita in March 2023 on the security of civil servants' pensions data.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The Integrity and Security of the Civil Service pension scheme is a matter for the Cabinet Office as the lead Department for the scheme. Any assessment of the impact of the reported Capita data breach on the security of civil servant pension data is a matter for the Cabinet Office and should be directed to them.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee West)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent progress his Department has made on processing applications under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy for former employees of Crown Agents and their families who remained in Afghanistan.
Answered by James Heappey
Since April 2021 we have relocated over 11,000 ARAP eligible individuals and their families to safety in the UK. It is not possible to provide a breakdown of these figures by job role or specific organisations.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee West)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what progress the Government has made on applications under all four categories of the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Programme.
Answered by James Heappey
Of the estimated 16,500 ARAP eligible individuals to which we owe debt of grattitude, we have relocated 11,437 individuals. This figure includes principals and dependants. Data fidelity does not allow for this figure to be broken down by ARAP categories or professions.
We continue to receive a high number of applications, however the majority of these are duplicates or are ineligible. We are now actively processing and issuing decisions on more applications per month than we are receiving, allowing us to make progress on clearing the backlog.
Our primary focus is on identifying and relocating the estimated remaining 5,300 eligible individuals, using HMG employment records to target our efforts. Significant progress has been made to accelerate the process in recent months, including additional Defence resource being made available and an enhanced casework system.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee West)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many civil service jobs (a) his Department and (b) its agencies had located in Scotland in (i) March 2011 and (ii) in the latest period for which figures are available.
Answered by Leo Docherty - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)
As at March 2011 there were 5,550 Ministry of Defence (MOD) civilian jobs located in Scotland.
The latest published figures confirm that as at 1 April 2020 there were 3,970 MOD civilian jobs located in Scotland.
The figures are full time equivalent and are based on the personnel station location. The March 2011 data includes c104 Meteorological Office personnel. However, as the Meteorological Office has since ceased to be a part of MOD, these are not included in the April 2020 data.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee West)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the gender balance is of full-time permanent contract staff in his Department.
Answered by Johnny Mercer - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Minister for Veterans' Affairs)
As at 1 October 2020, there were 19,620 male and 13,037 female full-time civilian staff employed on a permanent contract by the Ministry of Defence (MOD).
The most recent publication for the MOD Diversity Dashboard can be found on the Gov.uk website, at the link below:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/mod-diversity-dashboard-index
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee West)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the gender balance is of temporary contract staff in his Department.
Answered by Johnny Mercer - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Minister for Veterans' Affairs)
As of 31 December 2020, the Ministry of Defence including Defence Equipment & Support but excluding Trading Funds and Agencies, directly employed 245 female, 1,082 male and 86 undisclosed gender civilian staff on a temporary contract .
The gender balance of individual consultants and contractors employed through wider service contracts is not centrally held.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee West)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many women in his Department have participated in the Crossing Thresholds programme since 2018.
Answered by Johnny Mercer - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Minister for Veterans' Affairs)
Since 2018, 158 women in the Ministry of Defence have participated, or are participating, in the Crossing Thresholds programme. The Positive Action Pathway is currently being redesigned by Civil Service Learning and is no longer running; however, 134 civilian staff took part in the scheme from when it began in 2018 until it was suspended for redesign.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee West)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many civilian staff in his Department have taken part in the Positive Action Pathway scheme since 2018.
Answered by Johnny Mercer - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Minister for Veterans' Affairs)
Since its inception in 2018, 158 women in the Ministry of Defence have participated, or are participating, in the Crossing Thresholds programme. The Positive Action Pathway is currently being redesigned by Civil Service Learning and is no longer running; however, 134 civilian staff took part in the scheme from when it began in 2018 until it was suspended for redesign.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee West)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many women were employed in his Department in each year since 2018.
Answered by Johnny Mercer - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Minister for Veterans' Affairs)
The Ministry of Defence publishes statistics relating to the number of women employed within the Department in the MOD Diversity Dashboard on Gov.uk website. Details of each year, back to 2018, can be found at the link below:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/mod-diversity-dashboard-index
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee West)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what proportion of recruits to the armed forces in 2020 were female.
Answered by James Heappey
The requested information can be found in the ‘Female Intake’ and ‘Gender’ sections of the published 2020 and 2019 Biannual Diversity Statistics:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/943009/Biannual_Diversity_Statistics_Publication_Oct20.pdf
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/851974/UK_Armed_Forces_Biannual_Diversity_Statistics_-_1_October_2019.pdf
Defence remains dedicated to achieving a more diverse workforce and is undertaking a wide range of activities to increase the number of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) and female recruits into the Armed Forces. In 2015 we set ourselves ambitious targets to increase the diversity of personnel joining the Armed Forces by 2020; for female personnel, this was set at 15 per cent. Although progress has been made and the proportion of women joining increased during this period, we fell just under three per cent short of our target and thus recognise that there is still more to do.