Asked by: Paul Flynn (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether the National Audit Office has inspected the accounts of the office of the Director of Special Forces since its establishment in 1987; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton
The National Audit Office has a thorough process for inspecting all aspects of the Department's accounts. The Department does not routinely comment on any aspect of Special Forces.
Asked by: Paul Flynn (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what meetings his Department has had and on what dates with Sir Richard Paniguan in the last 12 months.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin - Shadow Minister (Business and Trade)
Details of Ministers and senior officials meetings are published on gov.uk under transparency reporting:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications?keywords=meetings&publication_filter_option=transparency-data&topics%5B%5D=all&departments%5B%5D=ministry-of-defence&official_document_status=all&world_locations%5B%5D=all&from_date=&to_date=
For meetings which may have taken place outside of the transparency reporting requirements, the information is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Paul Flynn (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent assessment he has made of the progress of the international campaign to defeat ISIS/Daesh.
Answered by Michael Fallon
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave earlier today to the hon. Members for Calder Valley (Craig Whittaker) and Sheffield, Heeley (Louise Haigh).
Asked by: Paul Flynn (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether he plans to extend the remit of his Department's Blacknest verification centre to verify nuclear disarmament and warhead dismantlement.
Answered by Philip Dunne
There are no plans to expand the remit of the Blacknest facility, which is primarily concerned with fulfilling the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty UK national data centre requirements.
Asked by: Paul Flynn (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, when his Department established the Nuclear Warhead Capability Sustainment Programme at the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE); who has been appointed as Senior Responsible Owner for that programme; who the key stakeholders for that programme are; how many scientists from the US national nuclear weapons laboratories are seconded to work on that programme; how many AWE scientists have visited the US national nuclear weapons laboratories as part of that programme; what that projected full cost of that programme is; how many scientists are working on that programme; how much has been spent on that programme to date; and what estimate he has made of the cost of that programme to completion.
Answered by Philip Dunne
The Nuclear Warhead Capability Sustainment Programme (NWCSP) commenced following an announcement on 19 July 2005 (Official report col 59WS). The current Senior Responsible Owner is Dr Paul Hollinshead. The key stakeholders in the NWCSP are the Ministry of Defence and the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE). Since 1 April 2008, financial planning for AWE has made no distinction between management and operation costs and those associated with the NWCSP. Expenditure at AWE since 2005 is as follows:
| £ million at outturn prices |
2005-06 | 493 |
2006-07 | 687 |
2007-08 | 894 |
2008-09 | 800 |
2009-10 | 870 |
2010-11 | 944 |
2011-12 | 941 |
2012-13 | 861 |
2013-14 | 961 |
2014-15 | 998 |
Spending plans beyond this Parliament will be set as part of the Government’s spending review process.
The NWCSP draws on the skills of all 5,000 AWE employees. No scientists from the US national nuclear weapons laboratories are seconded to the programme, but a US engineer and serviceman are seconded. The information on how many AWE scientists have visited the US national nuclear weapons laboratories as part of the programme is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.