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Written Question
China: Guided Weapons
Monday 13th March 2017

Asked by: Douglas Carswell (Independent - Clacton)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Chinese DF-21D missile.

Answered by Mike Penning

The Department regularly updates its assessments of such programmes, but these are not made public.


Written Question
Unmanned Marine Vehicles
Thursday 9th February 2017

Asked by: Douglas Carswell (Independent - Clacton)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the threat that underwater drones and distributed netted sensors pose, as part of the risk reduction and demonstration phase for the Dreadnought Class submarines.

Answered by Harriett Baldwin

The Ministry of Defence places a high priority on assuring the effectiveness of the United Kingdom's independent nuclear deterrent and managing the associated risk.

We dedicate considerable resource to assessing the threats from emerging capabilities and will apply any necessary mitigation throughout the lifetime of the nuclear deterrent to combat these threats.


Written Question
Navy: South Atlantic
Thursday 12th January 2017

Asked by: Douglas Carswell (Independent - Clacton)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, which Royal Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary ships are currently performing (a) Falkland Islands Patrol Task and (b) Atlantic Patrol Tasking South.

Answered by Mike Penning

HMS ENTERPRISE is currently assigned to the Falkland Islands Patrol Task, and both HMS PORTLAND and RFA GOLD ROVER are assigned to Atlantic Patrol Tasking (South).


Written Question
Defence Equipment and Support
Monday 12th December 2016

Asked by: Douglas Carswell (Independent - Clacton)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will make it his policy to increase parliamentary accountability of Defence Equipment and Support.

Answered by Harriett Baldwin

Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) became a bespoke trading entity, an arm's length body of the Ministry of Defence (MOD) on 1 April 2014. As detailed in the DE&S Framework Document, which sets out the governance arrangements of the organisation, the Secretary of State for Defence is accountable to Parliament for all aspects of DE&S's performance. In addition, the DE&S Chief Executive Officer is designated as an Accounting Officer and is therefore fully accountable to Parliament for the stewardship of DE&S resources.

The Framework Document contains more details about these arrangements and is available on gov.uk at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/defence-equipment-and-support-framework-document.


Written Question
Armed Forces: Mental Health Services
Monday 10th October 2016

Asked by: Douglas Carswell (Independent - Clacton)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what plans he has to increase the number of Departments of Community Mental Health.

Answered by Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton

The provision of mental healthcare to the Armed Forces is kept under regular review, to ensure that it continues to meet the demands placed on it in the light of changes to the size and location of the UK Armed Forces.

Following a recent review of the Defence Mental Health Services, we are in the process of reshaping the current network of Departments of Community Mental Health (DCMHs) into a "hub and spoke" model. Once implementation is complete, we will have moved from a total of 16 DCMHs in the UK (plus satellite centres overseas), to 11 "hub" DCMHs located in main centres of military population, plus "spoke" Mental Health Teams (MHTs) serving a further eight locations, making 19 sites in total. Regular visiting clinics will also be held at other military centres around the country.

Focussing on fewer but larger DCMHs will enable us to provide greater resilience and a more consistent range of clinical and operational capabilities, while the additional of MHTs will increase accessibility and provide a more robust support for delivery to Cyprus, the North West and Wales, as well as improving access for eligible reservists and veterans.


Written Question
MOD Wethersfield
Tuesday 19th July 2016

Asked by: Douglas Carswell (Independent - Clacton)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will make it his policy to ensure that a minimum number of homes are constructed on MOD Wethersfield for local residents during negotiations for the sale of that site.

Answered by Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) has committed to release land for 55,000 homes during this Parliament. Land at MOD Wethersfield is estimated to provide 4,850 homes. The allocation of these homes is a matter for the local authority and the developers who build them and not the MOD.


Written Question
Type 45 Destroyers
Monday 6th June 2016

Asked by: Douglas Carswell (Independent - Clacton)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will make it his policy to seek compensation from Rolls-Royce for the remedial work for the power and propulsion systems of the Type 45 Destroyers.

Answered by Philip Dunne

The decision to procure the Rolls Royce WR21 was taken in November 2000 by the then Defence Secretary, Geoff Hoon. In announcing the decision, he accepted this decision “presents a greater degree of risk to the programme.” It was judged that these risks would be outweighed by the system’s long term benefits of greater operational flexibility, as well as long-term savings in maintenance and personnel costs and a lower environmental impact.

As the issues now being addressed result from those earlier decisions, it is appropriate that liability for funding this work now rests with the Ministry of Defence. In terms of the contractual position, I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for East Renfrewshire (Kirsten Oswald) on 8 February 2016 to Question 25239.

On progress in implementing measures to improve the reliability and resilience of the Power and Propulsion (P&P) system, I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Dunfermline and West Fife (Douglas Chapman) on 8 February 2016 to Question 25165.. The work to date has been carried out under the Type 45 support contract and the associated costs cannot be separately identified.

A copy of the Independent P&P System Performance Review, dated March 2011, redacted in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, was placed in the Library of the House on 13 May 2016.


Written Question
Type 45 Destroyers
Monday 6th June 2016

Asked by: Douglas Carswell (Independent - Clacton)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what progress has been made on the remedial work for the power and propulsion systems of the Type 45 Destroyers; and what the total cost has been since the issues were identified.

Answered by Philip Dunne

The decision to procure the Rolls Royce WR21 was taken in November 2000 by the then Defence Secretary, Geoff Hoon. In announcing the decision, he accepted this decision “presents a greater degree of risk to the programme.” It was judged that these risks would be outweighed by the system’s long term benefits of greater operational flexibility, as well as long-term savings in maintenance and personnel costs and a lower environmental impact.

As the issues now being addressed result from those earlier decisions, it is appropriate that liability for funding this work now rests with the Ministry of Defence. In terms of the contractual position, I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for East Renfrewshire (Kirsten Oswald) on 8 February 2016 to Question 25239.

On progress in implementing measures to improve the reliability and resilience of the Power and Propulsion (P&P) system, I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Dunfermline and West Fife (Douglas Chapman) on 8 February 2016 to Question 25165.. The work to date has been carried out under the Type 45 support contract and the associated costs cannot be separately identified.

A copy of the Independent P&P System Performance Review, dated March 2011, redacted in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, was placed in the Library of the House on 13 May 2016.


Written Question
Type 45 Destroyers
Monday 6th June 2016

Asked by: Douglas Carswell (Independent - Clacton)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, when his Department will publish the Type 45 Destroyer - Independent Power and Propulsion System Performance Review.

Answered by Philip Dunne

The decision to procure the Rolls Royce WR21 was taken in November 2000 by the then Defence Secretary, Geoff Hoon. In announcing the decision, he accepted this decision “presents a greater degree of risk to the programme.” It was judged that these risks would be outweighed by the system’s long term benefits of greater operational flexibility, as well as long-term savings in maintenance and personnel costs and a lower environmental impact.

As the issues now being addressed result from those earlier decisions, it is appropriate that liability for funding this work now rests with the Ministry of Defence. In terms of the contractual position, I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for East Renfrewshire (Kirsten Oswald) on 8 February 2016 to Question 25239.

On progress in implementing measures to improve the reliability and resilience of the Power and Propulsion (P&P) system, I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Dunfermline and West Fife (Douglas Chapman) on 8 February 2016 to Question 25165.. The work to date has been carried out under the Type 45 support contract and the associated costs cannot be separately identified.

A copy of the Independent P&P System Performance Review, dated March 2011, redacted in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, was placed in the Library of the House on 13 May 2016.


Written Question
Ministry of Defence: Private Education
Monday 11th April 2016

Asked by: Douglas Carswell (Independent - Clacton)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many staff in his Department were in receipt of Continuity of Education Allowance in (a) 2012-13, (b) 2013-14 and (c) 2014-15; and what the cost to his Department was of providing that allowance for staff based (i) in the UK and (ii) overseas in each such year.

Answered by Julian Brazier

The requested information is provided in the following table and I have added the figures for 2009-10 for comparison.

Continuity of Education Allowance, Number of Claimants and Cost (UK and Overseas) by Financial Year (FY)

FY 2009-10

FY 2012-13

FY 2013-14

FY 2014-15

UK Claimants

5,020

4,160

3,600

3,230

Overseas Claimants

1,000

790

700

650

Total Claimants

6,020

4,950

4,300

3,880

UK Cost (£ million)

93.2

82.2

74.3

69.4

Overseas Cost (£ million)

18.1

16.4

15.0

15.1

Total Cost (£ million)

111.3

98.7

89.3

84.5

Note: all numbers are rounded

Continuity of Education Allowance was reviewed as part of the Strategic Defence and Security Review 2010 since when improvements in governance have achieved a reduction of costs by around £30 million per annum along with an associated reduction in claimants. Work continues to further reduce the cost of the allowance.