Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the job titles are of civil servants in his Department who have been provided with (a) an official car and (b) a driver.
Answered by Tobias Ellwood
Ministry of Defence (MOD) policy is that, generally, official cars are pooled rather than allocated. No MOD civil servants currently have a dedicated driver.
A small number of officials are, however, provided with a car to enable them to carry out essential duties. This includes some chaplains, welfare officers, recruiters, safety inspectors, housing officers and security staff.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, which regulations his Department (a) has introduced as a result of EU legislation from 23 June 2016 to date and (b) expects to implement as a result of EU legislation in (i) 2018 and (ii) 2019; and what estimate he has made of the cost of each such regulation to the (A) public purse and (B) private sector.
Answered by Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton
The Ministry of Defence has not introduced any regulations as a result of EU legislation since 23 June 2016 and currently has no plans to implement any regulations as a result of EU legislation in 2018 and 2019.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much the Army spent from the public purse on sponsorship of the National Diversity Awards 2017; and how many full-time equivalent Army staff worked on that project.
Answered by Tobias Ellwood
The Army sponsored the 'Positive Role Model for Race Award' at the National Diversity Awards at a cost of £9,995. No personnel were tasked to undertake a project relating to the awards, other than the minor task of arranging the sponsorship.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many of his Department's staff had a pay increase (a) above, (b) at and (c) less than one per cent in each of the last three years for which information is available.
Answered by Tobias Ellwood
The requested information for Ministry of Defence (MOD) civilian staff, excluding Senior Civil Servants and those working in MOD agencies, is provided below:
Percentage Increase | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 |
More than 1% | 17,510 | 19,670 | 28,750 |
1% | 0 | 0 | 2,220 |
Less than 1% | 22,910 | 20,720 | 9,710 |
Total | 40,420 | 40,390 | 40,680 |
Figures have been rounded.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what his Department's main policy priority is for 2017; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Michael Fallon
I have set four priorities for the Ministry of Defence in 2017:
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the (a) mean and (b) median pay was for staff in his Department who were (i) male, (ii) female, (iii) white, (iv) from an ethnic minority background, (v) disabled and (vi) non-disabled in the most recent year for which information is available, broken down by (A) full-time and (B) part-time workers.
Answered by Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton
The information is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
The Civil Service has been publishing mean and median gender pay gaps for each Department since 2008 as part of the annual release of Civil Service Statistics by the Office for National Statistics. The latest gender pay gap data (published in October 2016) can be found on the Office for National Statistics website at:
To meet the Department's obligations under the Public Sector Equality Duty, introduced by the Equality Act 2010, to provide information on its workforce, the Department publishes Equal Pay Audits, these can be found on the Gov.uk website at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/mod-equal-pay-audit-reports-index
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many former prisoners have been employed by his Department in each of the last five years.
Answered by Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton
The information is not held centrally for Service personnel or civil servants and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what information his Department has on the number of British (a) nationals and (b) service personnel in Aleppo.
Answered by Mike Penning
The Ministry of Defence does not hold any information on the number of British nationals in Aleppo. No Service personnel are deployed there, reflecting the position set out by the then Prime Minister in the debate in the House on 2 December 2015.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many interpreters and translators with Russian language skills are (a) employed by his Department and (b) members of the armed forces.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
The Ministry of Defence currently employs five individuals in interpreter roles requiring Russian language skills. All of these individuals are members of the Armed Forces.
The Department does not employ translators with Russian language skills. It can, however, call upon qualified personnel or contractors to provide this service as and when required.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the (a) initial estimate and (b) actual cost was for the HMS Queen Elizabeth.
Answered by Philip Dunne
As reported in successive Major Projects Reports, the original approved cost of the Queen Elizabeth Class (QEC) Aircraft Carrier programme was £3.9 billion, including the capitalised costs of the Assessment and Demonstration Phases. The approvals and cost management have been based on the QEC Class for a two-ship programme, and it is therefore not practicable to apportion costs to the individual Aircraft Carriers.
The current approved cost of the QEC Aircraft Carrier programme is £6.2 billion, as announced by my right hon. Friend the then Secretary of State for Defence the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond) on 6 November 2013 (Official Report, column 251-254). Whilst there are cost pressures, and final costs cannot be agreed until the programme finishes around 2019. The MOD continues to work closely with the Aircraft Carrier Alliance to drive the programme to remain within the current approved cost.