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Written Question
Israel: Military Aircraft
Wednesday 28th February 2024

Asked by: Patrick Grady (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, for what reason Israeli military planes have used UK airports on each occasion since 7 October 2023.

Answered by James Heappey

It is standard practice for the Ministry of Defence to routinely authorise requests for limited numbers of allies and partners to overfly the UK and use UK air bases. For operational security reasons and as a matter of policy, the MOD does not offer comment or information relating to foreign nations’ military aircraft movements or operations.


Written Question
Trident Submarines: Procurement
Monday 22nd January 2024

Asked by: Patrick Grady (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent estimate he has made of the total lifetime cost of the Trident renewal programme.

Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)

The Dreadnought submarine programme remains within overall budget and on track for the first of class, HMS Dreadnought, to enter service in the early 2030s.

Inflation has remained higher than expected for an extended period and had an adverse impact on the cost forecasts for this programme when compared to the forecasts from a year earlier.

As the programme is in its preliminary phases, it is too early to provide cost estimates for the replacement warhead programme.


Written Question
Trident Submarines: Procurement
Monday 22nd January 2024

Asked by: Patrick Grady (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent assessment he has made of the impact of recent trends in inflation rates on (a) the total lifetime cost of and (b) expenditure over the next five financial years on the Trident renewal programme.

Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)

The Dreadnought submarine programme remains within overall budget and on track for the first of class, HMS Dreadnought, to enter service in the early 2030s.

Inflation has remained higher than expected for an extended period and had an adverse impact on the cost forecasts for this programme when compared to the forecasts from a year earlier.

As the programme is in its preliminary phases, it is too early to provide cost estimates for the replacement warhead programme.


Written Question
Prime Minister: Staff
Tuesday 24th January 2023

Asked by: Patrick Grady (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 18 January 2023 to Question 122466 on Prime Minister: Staff, if he will publish the (a) total number of post holders and (b) dates of service of Military Assistants to the Prime Minister since 2010.

Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)

As stated in my answer to Question 122466 on 18 January 2023, six individuals have held the post of Military Assistant to the Prime Minister since 2010. The dates of their postings are as follows:

November 2010 to October 2012

October 2012 to September 2014

September 2014 to September 2016

September 2016 to September 2018

August 2018 to December 2020

December 2020 to November 2023


Written Question
Prime Minister: Staff
Wednesday 18th January 2023

Asked by: Patrick Grady (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 9 January 2023 to Question 113309 on Prime Minister: Staff, how many people have held the post of Military Assistant to the Prime Minister since 2010.

Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)

Six individuals have held the post of Military Assistant to the Prime Minister since 2010.


Written Question
Prime Minister: Staff
Monday 9th January 2023

Asked by: Patrick Grady (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 15 December 2022 to Question 108257 on Prime Minister: Staff, if he will publish (a) a list of post-holders and (b) the dates of service of those post-holders for Military Assistants to the Prime Minister since 2010.

Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)

For data protection and security reasons, the Ministry of Defence does not publish the names of Military Assistants to the Prime Minister.


Written Question
Development Aid
Monday 7th November 2022

Asked by: Patrick Grady (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what proportion of his Department’s expenditure in (a) Ukraine and (b) other countries will be classified as Official Development Assistance in this financial year.

Answered by James Heappey

To date the Department has not classified any expenditure in Ukraine or other countries as Official Development Assistance in this financial year.


Written Question
Ukraine: Development Aid
Wednesday 16th March 2022

Asked by: Patrick Grady (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what estimate he has made of how much and what proportion of his Department's spending in response to the conflict in Ukraine will be accounted for as Official Development Assistance.

Answered by James Heappey

At this stage, The Ministry of Defence has not committed to use Official Development Assistance funds in response to the conflict in Ukraine.


Written Question
Air Force: Carbon Emissions
Thursday 16th December 2021

Asked by: Patrick Grady (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, on what dates meetings have taken place as part of the Global Air Chiefs Climate Change Initiative since its launch by the Chief of the Air Staff.

Answered by Jeremy Quin

Since the launch of the Global Air Chiefs Climate Change Initiative in July 2021, the following meetings have taken place:

19 October 2021 - Deputy Chiefs' Meeting, led by the Royal Air Force;

30 November 2021 - Mission Planning and Execution working group meeting, led by the United States Air Force.

The 19 October meeting hosted by the RAF brought together participants from 41 different nations both in person and virtually.

A number of workstrands have been developed with further meetings planned in 2022.


Written Question
Armed Forces: Carbon Emissions
Monday 15th November 2021

Asked by: Patrick Grady (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

What steps his Department is taking to (a) monitor and (b) reduce carbon emissions from UK military activities.

Answered by Jeremy Quin

We monitor our carbon emissions from UK military activities and publish them in our Annual Report.

The Climate Change and Sustainability Strategic Approach we published in March 2021 sets out our route to making Defence more sustainable and reducing emissions.