Asked by: Jamie Reed (Labour - Copeland)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment his Department has made of the potential effect of the National Grid's North West Coast Connections project on flight training in and around Cumbria; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton
The proposed new overhead power lines included in National Grid's North West Coast Connections project has been evaluated against defence interests in the area including military low flying training activities.
Based upon the information provided by National Grid, the majority of the route for the new overhead power lines will follow that of existing major overhead line routes and it has been determined that the scheme will not impact upon the safe and effective completion of military low flying training in and around Cumbria, subject to details of all new overhead power lines being submitted to the Ministry of Defence for inclusion on relevant aeronautical charts.
Asked by: Jamie Reed (Labour - Copeland)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what his Department's input will be to the public consultation on the National Grid's North West Coast Connections project.
Answered by Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton
The Ministry of Defence (MOD) has responded to National Grid's consultation on this project and identified that the department has no objections to the proposal, subject to details of all new overhead power lines being submitted to the MOD for inclusion on relevant aeronautical charts.
Asked by: Jamie Reed (Labour - Copeland)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many people based in Cumbria his Department has employed in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton
The table shows the number of Armed Forces personnel and civilian personnel employed by the Ministry of Defence (MOD) in each of the last 10 years who were stationed in Cumbria.
Ministry of Defence Personnel Located in Cumbria | ||
Year | Armed Forces Personnel (see notes 1 & 3) | Civilian Personnel (see notes 2 & 3) |
April 2005 | 120 | 460 |
April 2006 | 120 | 480 |
April 2007 | 210 | 440 |
April 2008 | 270 | 400 |
April 2009 | 320 | 420 |
April 2010 | 340 | 420 |
April 2011 | 260 | 420 |
April 2012 | 310 | 390 |
April 2013 | 200 | 350 |
April 2014 | 240 | 340 |
April 2015 | 290 | 310 |
Note 1 - Figures are for UK Regular Forces (including both trained and untrained personnel), and exclude Gurkhas, Full time Reserve Service personnel and mobilised reservists.
Note 2 – Figures for civilian personnel relate to full-time and part-time, permanent and casual MOD employees and exclude Royal Fleet Auxiliary and locally engaged personnel.
Note 3 - Figures have been rounded to the nearest 10, though numbers ending in “5” have been rounded to the nearest multiple of 20 to prevent systematic bias.
The figures for Service personnel are based on their station location and not their location of residence, as personnel do not necessarily live where they work. Personnel deployed on operations to an area away from their stationed location are shown against their most recent stationed location.
Asked by: Jamie Reed (Labour - Copeland)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent representations he has received about delays in the national security vetting process.
Answered by Anna Soubry
Ministers have received a small number of letters from hon. Members about delays in the national security vetting process.
Processing requests for National Security Vetting clearances are, by nature, very robust as they help to establish the integrity of the applicant. Defence Business Services National Security Vetting (DBS NSV) is also reliant upon a number of third party suppliers to complete the security checks.
This has been exacerbated by a key third party supplier encountering difficulties with their IT system, which is outside of the control of the Ministry of Defence. However, these issues have now been resolved and additional personnel have been recruited to address the high volumes of applications.
Asked by: Jamie Reed (Labour - Copeland)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of IT systems used in the national security vetting process.
Answered by Julian Brazier
There have been a series of recent checks to confirm the adequacy of the IT systems used in the national security vetting process. These include: a comprehensive Defence Information Assurance audit, penetration tests and the re-awarding of the vetting system by the Defence Assurance Information Secretary. In addition, a complete refresh of all the electronic forms used in the vetting process is planned to take place in 2015.