Neil O'Brien: MOD: Written Answers (38)

Written Question

Ministry of Defence: Performance Appraisal

Monday 10th November 2025

Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many performance reviews were undertaken for staff in (a) his Department and (b) its agencies in each of the last five years; in how many of those cases performance was rated as unsatisfactory or below; how many staff left as a result of such a rating; and what proportion of full-time equivalent staff this represented.

Answered by Louise Sandher-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)

It is taking time to collate the required information to answer the hon. Member's Question. I will write to him when the information is available, and a copy of this letter will be placed in the Library of The House.

Written Question

Ministry of Defence: Conditions of Employment

Monday 10th November 2025

Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many staff in his Department (a) did not retain employment following the completion of their probationary period and (b) had their probationary period extended in each of the last five years.

Answered by Louise Sandher-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)

Ministry of Defence probation policy and guidance advises managers on the steps to take to assess a new employee’s suitability for the post and to provide support to enable them to succeed. It also advises on the steps to take where performance, attendance or conduct are not satisfactory. This can include exiting the employee or extending their probation to provide further evidence for a final decision on their suitability.

The table below shows the number of probations which were extended, and the number of staff who did not retain employment following the completion of their probationary period for the last five years:

Year	Extended Probations	Not retained after probation
2020	*	91
2021	*	216
2022	84	274
2023	175	322
2024	157	238
2025 (up to 31 Oct)	47	131
Total	463	1272

*The number of probations extended in the year 2020 and 2021 is not centrally held.

Written Question

Armed Forces: Officers

Friday 7th November 2025

Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many serving (a) General Officers in the British Army, (b) Admirals and Flag Officers in the Royal Navy and Royal Marines, (c) Air Officers of Air Rank in the Royal Air Force, (d) Commanding Officers of commissioned Royal Navy submarines and (e) Royal Air Force pilots holding frontline squadron command there are.

Answered by Louise Sandher-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)

Parts a,b and c of the hon. Member's question are answered in the table below.

	Number of UK Regular Forces, OF-6 to OF-10 by Service as at 1 July 2025

	Service	Number
	Royal Navy/ Royal Marines	135
	Army	211
	Royal Air Force	126

The Ministry of Defence does not routinely disclose the trained strength of individual branches or specialisations as to do so could, or would be likely to, prejudice the security of the Armed Forces. For this reason, I am withholding the answer to parts D and E of this question.

Written Question

Ministry of Defence: Temporary Accommodation

Thursday 24th July 2025

Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 18 December 2024 to Question 19002 on Ministry of Defence: Temporary Accommodation, how many Afghans are being accommodated on the defence estate.

Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)

As of 18 July 2025, there are currently 972 eligible Afghans in transitional accommodation on the Defence Estate under the Afghan Resettlement Programme (ARP). Use of the Defence Estate will be gradually reduced over the coming months, with a view to ceasing its use as transitional accommodation for Afghan families by the end of 2025.

Written Question

Afghanistan: Resettlement

Wednesday 23rd July 2025

Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to his oral statement of 15 July 2025 on Afghanistan, Official Report, column 149-152, whether the £5.5 to 6 billion lifetime cost of the Afghan resettlement schemes includes further family members coming to the UK.

Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)

Yes, the lifetime cost quoted of the Afghan resettlement schemes includes family members coming to the UK.

Projected costs are based on per person costs used for planning purposes, and estimated numbers of future arrivals. The estimate is based on costs incurred including: relocation and transitional accommodation costs; Local Authority tariffs and the Local Authority Housing Fund; legal fees; and staffing costs (e.g. case workers). The cost estimates also factor in assumptions on numbers of outstanding ARAP applications expected to be made eligible, family sizes and length of stay in transitional accommodation.

HM Treasury included the cost of all Afghan resettlement schemes in the spending audit in July 2024. HMT has fully funded all future costs of resettlement schemes as part of the Spending Review in June.

Written Question

Afghanistan: Resettlement

Wednesday 23rd July 2025

Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will publish the assumptions used to generate the figure of a 5.5 to 6 billion lifetime cost of the Afghan re-settlement schemes.

Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)

Yes, the lifetime cost quoted of the Afghan resettlement schemes includes family members coming to the UK.

Written Question

RAF Brize Norton

Thursday 26th June 2025

Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether there is CCTV coverage of the perimeter of RAF Brize Norton.

Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)

RAF Brize Norton has CCTV in operation that enables remote coverage of base areas which is part of the multilayered approach to security on site.

The Defence Secretary has ordered that a full security review be conducted at pace, not only at Brize Norton, but across the defence estate.

Written Question

Defence Equipment & Support and Submarine Delivery Agency: Equality

Tuesday 29th April 2025

Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the Answer of 5 March 2024 to Question 15748, how many staff in (a) The Ministry of Defence (b) Defence Equipment & Support and (c) the Submarine Delivery Agency have email tallies which include the words (i) equality, (ii) diversity, (iii) inclusion, (iv) gender, (v) LGBT and (vi) race.

Answered by Al Carns - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for Veterans)

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave him on 26 September 2024 to Question 1555.

Written Question

Armed Forces: Recruitment

Tuesday 18th February 2025

Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much his Department spent on Capita provided medical vetting for forces personnel in each of the last 10 years.

Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)

The requested information is provided in the following table, by Financial Year (FY):

FY	£ million
2014-15	175.730
2015-16	127.058
2016-17	134.476
2017-18	124.062
2018-19	115.435
2019-20	120.961
2020-21	132.124
2021-22	121.657
2022-23	121.028
2023-24	126.760

Written Question

Armed Forces: Recruitment

Tuesday 18th February 2025

Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the average length of time taken was between the point of application to join the (a) Army, (b) Royal Navy and (c) RAF and attestation in the latest period for which data is available.

Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)

The new Government inherited a crisis in recruitment. We have made it a priority to address this with a series of work streams designed to increase recruitment and renew the contract between the nation and those who serve to improve retention.

Many factors affect the time taken to proceed through the recruiting pipeline. Many candidates proceed much faster than the average when they are well prepared and ready to move quickly. Others take longer, for reasons including:

Delays in the receipt of primary healthcare records.
Medical deferment for those requiring time to get medically fit.
The need to align the start of basic of training with trade training.
A candidate’s current domestic, employment and housing situation.
A candidate’s choice regarding pace and level of engagement.

Numerical information is provided in the table below, noting that direct comparisons between each Service should be avoided due to the different processes in use; for example, recruits to the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force must achieve a Security Check level of security clearance before joining. In the time available to answer a Parliamentary Question, it has not been possible to provide information for each requested year.

Average Time of Flight (days) taken between Application and Basic Training Starts for Regular Other Ranks UK Nationals between 1 October 2018 and 30 September 2024

	12 months ending 30 September:
Average Time of Flight (days)	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024
Royal Navy (RN) / Royal Marines (RM)	..	..	357	376	301	279
Army	262	285	284	321	254	249
Royal Air Force (RAF)	..	345	448	463	375	301

Source: Analysis (Tri-Service)

Table Notes:

Time of Flight is defined as the time passed in days between the date of application and the date of intake to the untrained strength. The symbol “..” denotes that information is not available.
Average Time of Flight is expressed as the median number of days, meaning that Time of Flight for half of all candidates is shorter than the figures provided, and half is longer. For example, half of RN/RM candidates took up to 279 days in the 12 months ending 30 September 2024, with half taking longer.
Application data is taken from the Defence Recruitment System and Recruitment IT System (RN and RAF) and matched to intake data from the Joint Personnel Administration (JPA) system and should reflect time of entry to training.
Figures may differ from information reported elsewhere by single Service recruiting teams, which are intended to support operational decision-makers monitoring operational and pipeline performance and are therefore calculated using differing methodologies.
Applications from non-UK candidates are excluded, with Nationality as declared on JPA. Army figures include applications from Irish personnel but exclude applications from other countries and those applicants without a known nationality.
For a small number of Navy personnel, application date is recorded as after their intake date, likely due to outflowing and re-joining the Service. These personnel have been excluded from calculations.
When an individual has multiple applications to the RAF or RN/RM, the applications closest before their intake was used as the application submission date.
Where an application date is not held in the data or an application cannot be matched to intake, such as where there is no corresponding service number or National Insurance number, the case is excluded.