Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether his Department is taking steps to end the use of real bear fur for the King’s Guards' caps.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Ministry of Defence (MOD) is open to considering the use of using human-made materials to replace natural fur items where they provide a suitable, affordable and sustainable alternative. As such we are prepared to assess accredited testing results of material to establish whether a synthetic alternative could meet the Department’s requirements for a replacement bearskin cap material.
However, to date, and to the Department’s knowledge, an alternative has yet to meet the standards required to provide an effective replacement for the bearskin ceremonial caps.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on having the benefits system for current and former service personnel administered by his Department.
Answered by Johnny Mercer - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Minister for Veterans' Affairs)
No such discussions have taken place. In 2000, the Ministry of Defence (MOD) took on the administration of the War Pension Scheme from the Department for Work and Pensions as a discrete Scheme with benefit recipients who were already confirmed as veterans or widow/ers. However, the MOD is not resourced to take on the administration of the entire benefits system for all Service personnel and veterans and I have seen no evidence to suggest that such a change is required. In addition, there would be very significant logistical and administrative barriers to overcome, were such a change to be effected; MOD officials advise that over four million veterans records would have to be digitised to create a definitive database of all veterans.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what progress her Department has made on the implementation of the veterans strategy.
Answered by Tobias Ellwood
The Government already does a huge amount to support veterans, but for the first time we set out in this Strategy the long-term aims for veterans as a whole, to enable a consistent, coherent and reliable set of outcomes.
Over 4,000 responses were received to the Strategy's UK Government Consultation from a range of individuals and organisations. We are currently conducting a thorough analysis of the responses which will inform the implementation plan for the Strategy.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether he plans to attend the 2018 NATO summit; and what recent assessment he has made of the level of commitment of other NATO member states to two per cent of GDP as a minimum investment in defence.
Answered by Gavin Williamson
I refer the hon. Member to the reply given by my noble Friend, the Minister of State for Defence in the House of Lords (Earl Howe), to the noble Lord, Lord Jopling DL, in the House of Lords to Question HL7899. Burden sharing will be an important issue at the forthcoming NATO Summit, which I am due to attend.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking to preserve the integrity of UK sovereign waters around Gibraltar.
Answered by Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton
We are confident of UK sovereignty over the whole of Gibraltar, including British Gibraltar Territorial Waters. The Royal Navy continues to challenge all incursions by State vessels into British Gibraltar Territorial Waters, and the FCO supports this by making formal diplomatic protests to the relevant authorities.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether the provision of any military supplies agreed by the Government as suitable for the Kurdistan Regional Government has not been allowed by the federal Government of Iraq since June 2014; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Mike Penning
The Ministry of Defence is not aware of any occasion since June 2014 when military supplies gifted by the UK Government for use by Kurdistan Regional Government Peshmerga forces in the fight against Daesh have not been allowed by the Government of Iraq.
The UK Government has trained more than 7,300 Peshmerga fighters in Infantry skills, Counter-IED, engineering and combat first aid and they are playing an invaluable role in defeating Daesh.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent discussions he has had with his NATO counterparts on the target to spend two per cent of GDP on defence.
Answered by Julian Brazier
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my hon. Friend the Minister for Defence Procurement (Mr Dunne) on 18 April 2016 to Question 904488 to the hon. Member for Mid Derbyshire (Ms Latham)
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether his Department is taking steps to increase the proportion of defence spending that goes to small firms.
Answered by Philip Dunne
The Ministry of Defence (MOD) recognises that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are a crucial engine for growth and innovation in this country. In 2014-15, the MOD spent almost £4 billion both directly and indirectly with SMEs, equating to around 19.4 per cent of our procurement spend.
We are taking steps to increase the proportion of defence spending with smaller companies and have committed to ensuring that 25 per cent of our procurement spend, both direct and indirect, is with SMEs by 2020. To help achieve this challenging goal, the MOD last month refreshed its SME policy, reflecting three core objectives:
The refreshed SME policy can be found on gov.uk at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/mod-policy-for-small-and-medium-enterprises.