Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the timescale is for the completion of the transfer of service records from 1 January 1963 from his Department's contracted storage site to the National Archives.
Answered by Andrew Murrison
The current Service Records transfer project from the Ministry of Defence Main archive in Swadlincote, Derbyshire to The National Archives is due to be completed by the end of the 2026-27 financial year.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many commonwealth nationals joined the British armed forces in each year since 2010.
Answered by James Heappey
The table below provides the intake of Untrained Regular Commonwealth Nationals into the British Armed Forces each financial year from 2010:
Financial Year (FY) | Intake |
FY2010-11 | 450 |
FY2011-12 | 680 |
FY2012-13 | 720 |
FY2013-14 | 440 |
FY2014-15 | 120 |
FY2015-16 | 90 |
FY2016-17 | 320 |
FY2017-18 | 480 |
FY2018-19 | 290 |
FY2019-20 | 1,520 |
FY2020-21 | 650 |
FY2021-22 | 410 |
FY2022-23 | 360 |
1. Figures are for the Regulars only and therefore excludes Full Time Reserve Service personnel, Gurkhas, mobilised Reservists, all other Reserves, Military Provost Guard Service, Locally Employed Personnel and Non-Regular Permanent Staff.
2. The figures in the table refer to untrained personnel.
3. Nationality is self-recorded on the Joint Personnel Administration system. Nationality has been used for the Commonwealth grouping and therefore may reflect nationality at birth, but not the status under which they were recruited.
4. Figures have been rounded to the nearest 10, with the exception of numbers ending in a
“5” which have been rounded to the nearest multiple of 20 to prevent systematic bias.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the cost to the public purse was for (a) abandoned and (b) postponed training exercises in each year since 2015, broken down by service.
Answered by James Heappey
This information could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the cost to the public purse was of his Department's National Roadside Repair and Recovery scheme in each year since 2015.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Shadow Secretary of State for Defence
Financial Year (1 Apr – 31 Mar) | No of call-outs in UK | No of call-outs in Europe | No of call-outs in Morocco | TOTAL No of call-outs | TOTAL Cost (£) Ex VAT |
2015-16* | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | £687,578 |
2016-17 | 1828 | 38 | 0 | 1866 | £838,859 |
2017-18 | 1733 | 61 | 0 | 1794 | £664,748 |
2018-19 | 1695 | 54 | 1 | 1749 | £833,040 |
2019-20 | 1560 | 43 | 0 | 1603 | £783,401 |
2020-21 | 1195 | 5 | 0 | 1200 | £529,196 |
2021-22 | 1829 | 33 | 0 | 1862 | £1,053,663 |
2022-23 | 1506 | 62 | 0 | 1568 | £985,765 |
*Information on the number of call outs for Financial Year 2015-16 is not held.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many callouts the National Roadside Repair and Recovery scheme received in (a) the UK, (b) Europe and (c) Morocco in each year since 2015.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Shadow Secretary of State for Defence
Financial Year (1 Apr – 31 Mar) | No of call-outs in UK | No of call-outs in Europe | No of call-outs in Morocco | TOTAL No of call-outs | TOTAL Cost (£) Ex VAT |
2015-16* | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | £687,578 |
2016-17 | 1828 | 38 | 0 | 1866 | £838,859 |
2017-18 | 1733 | 61 | 0 | 1794 | £664,748 |
2018-19 | 1695 | 54 | 1 | 1749 | £833,040 |
2019-20 | 1560 | 43 | 0 | 1603 | £783,401 |
2020-21 | 1195 | 5 | 0 | 1200 | £529,196 |
2021-22 | 1829 | 33 | 0 | 1862 | £1,053,663 |
2022-23 | 1506 | 62 | 0 | 1568 | £985,765 |
*Information on the number of call outs for Financial Year 2015-16 is not held.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many (a) SA80 A3 assault rifles and (b) Glock General Service Pistols were in the Ministry of Defence inventory in each year since 2010.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Shadow Secretary of State for Defence
The SA80 A3 was first produced in 2017, therefore numbers were not recorded in service before 2017, the information provided in the table below shows the number of SA80A3 held on the Current Assets Register each year since 2017.
SA80 A3 NSN 1005991552342 |
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Year | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | ||||
Total | 402 | 5,010 | 5,010 | 4,985 | 15,094 | 17,908 | 24,918 | ||||
The equivalent data for the Glock General Service Pistol L131A1 could only be retrieved at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether he has made an estimate of the number and proportion of military barracks in the UK that are overcrowded.
Answered by Andrew Murrison
The Royal Navy and Royal Air Force have confirmed there is no overcrowding in their Single Living Accommodation (SLA).
For the Army, the information is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. However, the Army have seen no reports of overcrowding, and where demand for SLA exceeds supply, Substitute Service Single Accommodation is provided.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 6 March 2023 to Question 152253 on Armed Forces Compensation Scheme and War Pensions, what steps he is taking to reduce these clearance times.
Answered by Andrew Murrison
Whilst the Ministry of Defence (MOD) aims to consider claims under the War Pension Scheme and Armed Forces Compensation Scheme as quickly as possible so as not to cause undue delay and stress, there are occasions when some cases do take longer to resolve. It is necessary to obtain Service evidence, medical records and case notes from the individual's General Practitioner and/or Hospital. Awaiting the return of those records does take time, and is something the MOD has no influence over. To manage workflow effectively and fairly, all cases are dealt with in strict date order, except where terminally ill veterans are given priority.
Caseloads are monitored continuously so that resources can be targeted if issues emerge. Recently the numbers of Armed Forces Compensation Scheme claims have shown an increase on previous levels and additional resources are being recruited to tackle this.
Around £40 million is being invested by the MOD in an ongoing Transformation Programme as part of the Service Delivery Contract to digitise existing paper-based processes, introduce automation, process improvements and create a single user portal for Pensions and Compensation.
Additionally in November 2022, a new online digital claim service was launched on gov.uk for those seeking compensation from the Armed Forces Compensation and War Pension schemes. The service is now available to all Service personnel and veterans.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 27 February 2023 to Question 150518 on the Minimum Wage, what the total value of the contracts with the firms named in the list amount to.
Answered by Alex Chalk
The total value of the contracts with the firms named in the previous response is £685 million. Firms found to have been in breach have been required to repay sums owed and settle fines totalling an additional £2 million.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what was the clearance time for War Pension and Armed Forces Compensation Scheme claims in each month since May 2022.
Answered by Andrew Murrison
The below table details the average clearance time for first claims under the War Pension Scheme and initial injury or illness claims under the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme for each calendar month between May and December 2022 (latest data available).
Table 1: Average (mean) clearance times and number of claims for first disablement claims1 cleared under the War Pension Scheme and Injury/Illness claims2 cleared under the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme, in working days, by calendar month3
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| May 2022 | Jun 2022 | Jul 2022 | Aug 2022 | Sep 2022 | Oct 2022 | Nov 2022 | Dec 2022 |
War Pension Scheme | Number of claims4 | 130 | 185 | 105 | 180 | 130 | 125 | 190 | 145 |
Mean clearance time | 135 | 161 | 158 | 165 | 161 | 181 | 163 | 152 | |
Armed Forces | Number of claims4 | 470 | 460 | 395 | 420 | 405 | 630 | 575 | 445 |
Mean clearance time | 79 | 86 | 95 | 100 | 105 | 95 | 109 | 97 |
1 May 2022 – 31 December 2022
Source: War Pension Computer System (WPCS) and Compensation and Pension System (CAPS)