Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the effect of the Overseas Operations (Service Personnel and Veterans) Bill on service personnel’s ability to make civil claims against his Department.
Answered by Johnny Mercer - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Minister for Veterans' Affairs)
Service personnel and veterans will continue to be able to bring claims relating to overseas operations against the MOD. While the Bill will introduce a six year longstop for personal injury and death claims, the clock for those claims won't start until the date of knowledge. This means that for conditions like PTSD, that may not be diagnosed until much later, the six years would start from the date of diagnosis not the date of a deployment on an overseas operation.
Service personnel and veterans will also continue to be able to access the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme, including for claims relating to overseas operations, which has a seven-year time limit for bringing claims.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what (a) the role and (b) cost to the public purse is of his Department's director of diversity and inclusion.
Answered by Johnny Mercer - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Minister for Veterans' Affairs)
The senior leadership of the Ministry of Defence (MOD), military and civilian, is committed to improving Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) across the Department. We know we are not sufficiently diverse, not yet reflecting the society we defend and serve, and we are determined to deliver tangible progress at pace. The Department has recently set Levels of Ambition for D&I, backed by action plans that will be regularly assured and reported on. There is a palpable energy for change, from across Defence personnel, and to harness this and create real momentum we have directed that D&I will be a high-priority programme, taken forward on a sustained and enduring basis, across the whole of Defence. To lead this exciting agenda, we are seeking to appoint a senior D&I professional as Director and Senior Responsible Officer.
The successful candidate will develop and deliver the Department’s D&I Plan and will hold our Executive Committee to account, putting the Department’s D&I work on a programmatic footing in order to make an enduring step change in momentum and drive actions at all levels to bring about substantive improvements for the whole MOD workforce, both Service and civilian. They will set D&I policy, refresh D&I strategy and assure delivery against actions plans by Defence, Top Level Budgets, Chiefs and Director Generals, together supporting around 240,000 personnel.
This post attracts a salary of £110,000 and offers a Civil Service pension. However, if the successful candidate is an existing Civil Servant, they will be appointed in line with the Civil Service pay rules meaning if they are taking up post on level transfer they will retain their existing salary. Candidates on promotion will either have their current salary increased by ten per cent or receive the starting salary for a Senior Civil Servant (Pay Band 2) role which is £92,000 (whichever is higher).
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of the expansion of the Chinese People's Liberation Army.
Answered by James Heappey
Safeguarding our national security will always be the first priority of the British Government. Defence continuously monitors and plans against all international developments which might have implications for the UK's interests and those of our allies. The Ministry of Defence has a working relationship with the People’s Liberation Army that enables an ongoing exchange of views. Needless to say, we are watching closely the development of Chinese military capability.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of the COVID Support Force in supporting public services.
Answered by James Heappey
Defence's COVID Support Force (CSF) was established to provide support, expertise and resilience to the NHS and other Government Departments to assure the continued delivery of public services as part of HMG's response to COVID-19.
In total, Defence has responded to 161 Military Aid to Civilian Authority (MACA) requests, involving nearly 4,000 military personnel. Through the MACA process, Defence has supplied clinical support to the NHS, logistics support to the national PPE distribution effort and support to testing (including the rapid establishment of a Mobile Testing capability), and has provided expert planning support to a number of Government Departments.
Support to the?Government's?COVID-19?response?is the Ministry of Defence's main effort; Defence is committed to supporting the national effort to tackle Covid-19 and continues to aid other Government Departments such as the Department for Health and Social Care whilst ensuring that critical Defence outputs continue to be delivered.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to (a) recruit and (b) retain armed forces personnel.
Answered by James Heappey
We remain committed to maintaining the overall size of the Armed Forces.
Importantly, the Services continue to meet all operational commitments, keeping the country and its interests safe. The Armed Forces are fully funded to meet their target strength and we continue to increase funding year on year.
There are a range of measures under way to improve recruitment and retention, and these are kept under constant review. These include the following:
Recruitment
All three Services are closely focused on recruiting processes to ensure they are converting high levels of interest into trained strength, maximising the potential of all applicants.
The Royal Navy and Royal Marines operate a Personnel Recovery Programme which includes initiatives to improve inflow (gains to trained strength), throughflow (promotions) and outflow (reducing voluntary resignations).
The Army Confidence 2020 campaign follows the highly successful 2019 ‘Your Army Needs You’ campaign, which focused on seeing beyond stereotypes to spot young people’s potential. The campaign has begun well and is directly comparable to last year’s iteration which delivered the highest number of applications since 2014. Army Reserve recruitment is improving and performing strongly, with an increase of 29.5% in the last calendar year.
The Royal Air Force established Enterprise Collaboration Teams to oversee critical skills groups and deliver a range of recruitment initiatives. Specialist Recruitment Teams have also been created for hard to recruit branches and trades, Black Asian and Minority Ethnicity (BAME) and female personnel. A major programme to encourage re-joiners is also underway.
Retention
We have increased the attractiveness of our offer to Service personnel by securing a pay rise of 2.9% for all up to 1-star rank. Financial Retention Incentives are also being used to improve retention in certain priority areas.
The Future Accommodation Model (FAM) is now being trialled at scale in selected sites. FAM is intended to give Service personnel greater choice over their housing options to better suit their lifestyles and preferences.
Flexible Service introduces the potential for Service personnel to alter their career commitment for set periods of time. This should see more people staying in the Armed Forces who may otherwise have decided to leave in order to meet competing demands on their time, such as caring or parental responsibilities.
Our People Concept Development project involves collaborating with industry to tackle the critical skills challenge and explore new ways to access the skilled people we need. By looking at demand across the public and private sector, finding ways to share skills and make it easier for people to move around different elements of Defence, we aim to increase retention of skilled people.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what support his Department is providing to the Overseas Territories during the covid-19 pandemic.
Answered by James Heappey
The Ministry of Defence is playing a significant part in the UK Government's efforts to ensure the Overseas Territories receive the necessary support to manage impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.
We have sent a military medical team to the Falkland Islands which has doubled its ICU bed capacity. In Gibraltar, Defence personnel helped build the Nightingale hospital and have provided logistical and planning support. Defence personnel, as part of Security Assistance Teams, have deployed to the Cayman Islands and Turks and Caicos Islands to assist local authorities planning for their coronavirus responses. A further team have deployed to the Turks and Caicos Islands to assist local countering-illegal-immigration operations on a short-term basis.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to ensure the projected capabilities of the armed forces are adequate to address future expected threats to national security over the next 10 years.
Answered by James Heappey
The Ministry of Defence has rigorous processes to assure, test and develop the capabilities and force structure that we have to make sure that they are robust against current and future threats. But we are not complacent, the threat picture is evolving quickly. Therefore, we are continuing with these processes to make sure our plans are delivering the right capability to keep the country safe now and in decades to come.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what support his Department has provided to veterans during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Johnny Mercer - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Minister for Veterans' Affairs)
All of the existing 470,000 Armed Forces Pensions, War Pensions, War Widows Pensions and Armed Forces Compensation Scheme payments are continuing to be made as usual into nominated bank accounts, and all requests for welfare support are being met, the same day where at all possible. Welfare Managers continue to be available and are in contact with known vulnerable veterans and working closely with local and national business partners to ensure those in need of support are linked into local services.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what plans he has to commemorate the armed services personnel who supported the UK's nuclear weapons testing programme.
Answered by James Heappey
New medallic awards are considered by the Committee on the Grant of Honours, Decorations and Medals (HD Committee). The HD Committee has re-established its Advisory Military Sub-Committee (AMSC) to examine historic military medals claims; the AMSC is considering the case for a medal for Nuclear Test Veterans and will make a recommendation to the HD Committee in due course.
The Government continues to recognise and be grateful to all Servicemen and women who participated in the British nuclear testing programme. They contributed to keeping our nation secure during the Cold War and since, by ensuring that the UK was equipped with an appropriate nuclear capability.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what restrictions cover flights by United States Air Force planes over south Lincolnshire to protect residents against disturbance caused by (a) noise and (b) vibrations.
Answered by Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton
There are no specific restrictions that apply solely to United States Air Force (USAF) flights over South Lincolnshire. Rather, the USAF adhere to UK Military Aviation Authority regulations when flying in the airspace above South Lincolnshire, and this includes the regulations for flights in the UK Low Flying System.