Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 18 April 2024 to Question 21848 on Iran: Israel, what the basis was for UK military action in defence of Israel.
Answered by Leo Docherty - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)
As stated by the Prime Minister in the Iran-Israel Update to Parliament on 15 April 2024 (Volume 748), the UK was acting in the collective self-defence of Israel and for regional security.
There are no plans to publish the legal advice, in line with long-standing precedent.
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, with reference to his Department's Freedom of Information response of 20 March 2024 (reference number FOI2023/23127), when his Department was told by the Israeli Foreign Ministry that that there were 80 British national lone soldiers in the Israeli Defence Forces.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
The figure given in FOI2023/23127 was provided by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs in September 2023. However, this is not the number of British Nationals serving in the IDF, this is the number of British Nationals who immigrated on their own, in order to serve.
The Government does not make its own estimate of the numbers of UK citizens travelling to fight for the Israel Defence Force (IDF).
The UK recognises the right of British nationals with more than one nationality to serve in the legitimately recognised armed forces of their additional nationalities.
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 18 April 2024 to Question 21358 on INEOS: Belgium, if he will provide a breakdown of the €200 million of UK content by the (a) sectors and (b) nature of (i) goods and (ii) services.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The largest share of the UK content goes to supporting jobs where a UK company is responsible for construction and project management of associated facilities for the INEOS Project One site, including design and engineering services. Additionally, UK content support has been provided for a company to provide equipment for furnaces, as well as for companies providing legal and procurement services from the UK.
The Department for Business and Trade are unable to provide further details about contracts already awarded for reasons of commercial sensitivity.
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how much funding has been allocated from the (a) UK Community Renewal Fund, (b) Levelling Up Fund, (c) Community Ownership Fund and (d) UK Shared Prosperity Fund to projects in (i) Scotland, (ii) Wales, (iii) England and (iv) Northern Ireland (A) overall and (B) in each financial year for which figures are available; and if he will publish a breakdown by project.
Answered by Jacob Young - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
Information on the projects that these funds have supported and the dates when commitments were announced are publicly available and can be found on gov.uk:
Delivery of UKSPF is delegated to local authorities.
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department is taking steps to help support the development of (a) hydrotreating kerosene and (b) other cleaner aviation fuels.
Answered by Anthony Browne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
In July 2022, Government confirmed that a SAF Mandate would be introduced in 2025 requiring at least 10% (around 1.5 billion litres) of jet fuel to be made from sustainable feedstocks by 2030.
In the second SAF mandate consultation, it was proposed that increasing targets be set out in legislation from 2025-2040. The levels of these targets will be confirmed in a Government response to the consultation due to be published in Spring 2024.
The SAF mandate will support SAF produced using a range of feedstocks and technologies including biofuels from waste materials via the hydrotreated ester fatty acids process.
Our £135m Advanced Fuels Fund is supporting 13 different SAF projects reach commercial scale in the UK. These cover a range of technologies to drive innovation and diversity of supply. Once operational, these projects are expected to collectively produce over 700 kilo tonnes of SAF and reduce CO2 emissions by 2.7 million each year.
In September 2023, the Government also committed to introduce a revenue certainty mechanism to support SAF production in the UK. The intention is that it will be industry funded. The mechanism will provide revenue certainty for SAF production, supporting investor confidence in UK SAF projects.
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department has targets for the commercial use of sustainable aviation fuel.
Answered by Anthony Browne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
In July 2022, Government confirmed that a SAF Mandate would be introduced in 2025 requiring at least 10% (around 1.5 billion litres) of jet fuel to be made from sustainable feedstocks by 2030.
In the second SAF mandate consultation, it was proposed that increasing targets be set out in legislation from 2025-2040. The levels of these targets will be confirmed in a Government response to the consultation due to be published in Spring 2024.
The SAF mandate will support SAF produced using a range of feedstocks and technologies including biofuels from waste materials via the hydrotreated ester fatty acids process.
Our £135m Advanced Fuels Fund is supporting 13 different SAF projects reach commercial scale in the UK. These cover a range of technologies to drive innovation and diversity of supply. Once operational, these projects are expected to collectively produce over 700 kilo tonnes of SAF and reduce CO2 emissions by 2.7 million each year.
In September 2023, the Government also committed to introduce a revenue certainty mechanism to support SAF production in the UK. The intention is that it will be industry funded. The mechanism will provide revenue certainty for SAF production, supporting investor confidence in UK SAF projects.
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, which army unit is alleged to be the subject of the research entitled Are British soldiers adequately prepared to make safe sexual health decisions when deployed to areas with high HIV prevalence?, published in the British Medical Journal Military Health on 21 March 2024 on initiation ceremonies in Kenya.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The article was originally published in the British Medical Journal Military Health in July 2022. The purpose of the research was to consider the effectiveness of the sexual health brief Service personnel receive when they arrive in Kenya to determine whether the brief had any influence on soldiers’ approach to sexual health. Information about which units’ participants served with was not captured as part of the research.
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, which British Army regiments have trained in Kenya since 2012; and on what dates that training took place.
Answered by Leo Docherty - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)
The table below shows the Army units which have trained in British Army Training Unit Kenya (BATUK) between 2019 – March 2024. Due to a change in information technology systems and the way in which records are held, data prior to 2019 could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Exercise date | Unit |
Feb – Mar 24 | 3rd Battalion, The Rifles |
Oct – Nov 23 | 1st Battalion, The Grenadier Guards |
Jun – Jul 23 | 3rd Battalion, The Parachute Regiment |
Mar – Apr 23 | 1st Battalion, The Coldstream Guards |
Oct – Nov 22 | 1st Battalion, The Rifles |
Mar – Apr 22 | 1st Battalion, The Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment |
Oct – Nov 21 | 2nd Battalion, The Rifles |
Feb – Mar 21 | 2nd Battalion, The Mercian Regiment |
Mar – Apr 20 | 2nd Battalion, The Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment 1st Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Scotland |
Jan – Mar 20 | 3rd Battalion, The Parachute Regiment |
Oct – Nov 19 | 2nd Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Scotland 1st Battalion, The Coldstream Guards |
May – Jun 19 | 2nd Battalion, The Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment 1st Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Scotland 2nd Battalion, The Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment 4th Battalion, The Rifles |
Feb – Mar 19 | 2nd Battalion, The Rifles |
Jan – Feb 19 | 1st Battalion, The Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment |
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether her Department has held discussions with UK Export Finance on (a) the closure of the ethanol plant at Grangemouth and (b) the proposed INEOS plant in Antwerp.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
UK Export Finance and the Department for Business and Trade are strategically and operationally aligned, and routinely share relevant information across all business areas.
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, pursuant to Answer of 25 March 2024 to Question 19719 on INEOS: Belgium, how many (a) ethanol and (b) ethanol-related products will be produced at the new Ineos site in Antwerp.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The INEOS Project One plant will not be producing ethanol or ethanol related products.