Asked by: Julie Cooper (Labour - Burnley)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many defence delegations from foreign countries have visited the construction site of the Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers.
Answered by Philip Dunne
Since 2011, there have been around 50 visits by defence delegations from foreign countries to the Queen Elizabeth Class Aircraft Carriers being built in Rosyth, reflecting the broad range of organisations from Allies and partner nations with a legitimate interest in the programme.
Asked by: Julie Cooper (Labour - Burnley)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether the Government has plans to sell one of the Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers to a foreign country.
Answered by Philip Dunne
On 5 September 2014 at the NATO Summit in Cardiff, the Prime Minister announced that the second carrier, would be brought into service, ensuring that we always have one carrier available, 100% of the time. This decision was re-affirmed in the 2015 Strategic Defence and Security Review. There is, therefore, no plan to sell one of the Queen Elizabeth Class Carriers to a foreign country.
Asked by: Julie Cooper (Labour - Burnley)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many times he has attended public meetings of the Defence Committee since his appointment.
Answered by Michael Fallon
I have attended each of the three public oral evidence sessions to which I have been invited since my appointment. I have agreed to appear before the Committee on 24 May on Russia and 8 June on Syria and Iraq.
Asked by: Julie Cooper (Labour - Burnley)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent assessment his Department has made of North Korea's nuclear capability in (a) general and (b) relation to claims by that country that it has developed nuclear-tipped missiles.
Answered by Julian Brazier
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea's (DPRK) has stated its intention to develop and deploy nuclear weapons and has conducted nuclear and ballistic missile tests in violation of UN Security Council Resolutions. The Department regularly updates its assessments of such programmes, but these assessments are not made public. We remain deeply concerned by the DPRK's actions and continue to urge the country to comply with its international obligations and refrain from any further provocations.
Asked by: Julie Cooper (Labour - Burnley)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many drone strikes have taken place against Daesh targets in (a) Iraq and (b) Syria since September 2014.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt
Between 1 September 2014 and 15 March 2016 there have been 200 Remotely Piloted Air System (RPAS) strikes in Iraq and 13 in Syria against Daesh targets.
Asked by: Julie Cooper (Labour - Burnley)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many British servicemen are serving in (a) Iraq and (b) Afghanistan.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt
As of 22 January 2016, there were 287 British Service personnel serving in Iraq as part of Operation SHADER. This includes UK training teams providing training to the Iraq Security Forces and Kurdish Security Forces and UK support to various Coalition headquarters. Routine movements and minor changes in requirements mean that this number will vary over time.
For Afghanistan, I refer the hon. Member to the reply given by my noble Friend, the Minister of State in the House of Lords, the Rt Hon Earl Howe PC to the noble Lord, Lord Moonie, in the House of Lords to Question HL5150.
Asked by: Julie Cooper (Labour - Burnley)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many British servicemen and women are based on British military bases abroad.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt
There are 9,360 British Service personnel permanently based on British military bases abroad. This figure includes those based in Cyprus, Gibraltar, the South Atlantic Islands, Diego Garcia, Germany, Canada, Kenya, Brunei, Nepal and Belize. This figure represents the number of Service personnel who are stationed at that location. It may differ from the actual number of people working on the base at the time, for example due to deployments. The breakdown of these figures into country and service is shown below; where countries have five or less personnel, these are rounded to zero and the country does not appear in the table. The Ministry of Defence regularly publishes the location figures for both military and civilian personnel, which can be accessed on the GOV.UK website at:
https//www.gov.uk/government/statistics/location-of-uk-regular-service-and-civilian-personnel-quarterly-statistics-2015
UK Base Country | Navy | Army | RAF | TOTAL |
Germany | 20 | 5,900 | 130 | 6,050 |
Canada | 10 | 360 | 20 | 390 |
Kenya | 0 | 210 | 10 | 220 |
Brunei | 10 | 130 | 10 | 150 |
Nepal | 0 | 20 | 0 | 20 |
Cyprus | 20 | 1,480 | 730 | 2,230 |
Gibraltar | 110 | 30 | 30 | 170 |
South Atlantic Islands | 10 | 50 | 20 | 80 |
Diego Garcia | 40 | 0 | 0 | 40 |
Belize | 0 | 10 | 0 | 10 |
TOTAL | 220 | 8,190 | 950 | 9,360 |
(Location of UK regular service and civilian personnel quarterly statistics- 1 October 2015)
Asked by: Julie Cooper (Labour - Burnley)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many members of the Iraqi army have been trained by British servicemen since 2003.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt
Since 2003, the UK has played an important role in delivering training to the Iraqi Army through a range of training, mentoring and advisory activities. Due to the varied nature of the training it is not possible to give an exact figure of the numbers trained, but we do have figures for some specific areas of training.
Between 2004 and 2009 - as part of Operation TELIC - British Service personnel in the south of Iraq trained over 20,000 Iraqi Army soldiers. During this period the UK also supported the NATO training mission in Iraq, with British Forces providing advice and training to the Iraqi Ministry of Defence. The UK was the lead for officer education and training, and British mentors provided training and advice to the Iraqi Security Forces.
Under Operation SHADER, during 2015 and 2016, the UK has trained approximately 5,000 members of the Iraqi Army. This training has mainly focused on the delivery of Counter-IED training to support the Iraqi Security Forces in defeating Daesh.
Asked by: Julie Cooper (Labour - Burnley)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many members of the Kurdish Peshmerga have been trained by British servicemen since 2014.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt
Since Operation SHADER began in 2014, the UK - as part of the Coalition - has trained approximately 3,000 members of the Kurdish security forces. The majority of those trained have been Kurdish Peshmerga.
Asked by: Julie Cooper (Labour - Burnley)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many members of the Afghan army have been trained by British servicemen since 2001.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt
Since 2001, alongside NATO partners, the UK has played an important role in developing the 350,000 strong Afghan National Security Forces through a range of training, mentoring and advisory activities.
During Operation HERRICK (2002-2014) UK Armed Forces personnel mentored and advised 3rd Brigade, 215 Corps of the Afghan National Army in Helmand. During this time, UK forces partnered Afghan personnel on operations, allowing them to learn from experience and enabling them, over time, to take the lead for operations themselves. The UK also supported the development of Afghan military instructors.
Since the end of 2014, as part of Operation TORAL, the UK has mentored and advised the Afghan instructors at the Afghan National Army Officer Academy (ANAOA) in Kabul. Up to 1140 Afghan cadets can be enrolled at ANAOA each year.
At present as part of wider NATO activity, the UK also has a small team deployed to Helmand to further assist the development of 215 Corps.