Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much of the £400m Afghan Response Route funds announced on the 15 July 2025 was classified as Official Development Assistance in each year of operation; and from which Departments’ budgets it was sourced.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
No money spent on relocation or resettlement in the UK as a result of the data loss incident is being paid for out of the Official Development Assistance budget.
HM Treasury included the cost of Afghan resettlement schemes, including the ARR, in the spending audit in July 2024, we have since fully funded the cost of the resettlement schemes as part of the 2025 Spending Review.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will make an estimate of the number of veterans that have (a) died and (b) committed suicide whilst awaiting a final settlement of a claim to the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme since 2019.
Answered by Andrew Murrison
The information requested cannot be provided without exceeding the disproportionate cost limit.
However, I can confirm that between 1 January 2019 and 31 March 2024, ten veterans whose next of kin decided to proceed with the active claim died before receiving an outcome of either an initial Armed Forces Compensation Scheme (AFCS) injury/illness claim or an appeal. The figure includes claims which were still open on 31 March 2024.
The Ministry of Defence does not hold information on the cause of death where a claimant dies before receiving an outcome of claim under the AFCS. Therefore, it is not possible to identify veterans that have committed suicide whilst awaiting a claim outcome since 2019.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, (a) how much has been paid to officials of his Department as an additional incentive for working overtime on top of their normal overtime payments, (b) how much has been offered to any individual staff member for a one-off occurrence, (c) how many staff received such incentivised additional payments, (d) from which budgets such payments were made and (e) at which Ministerial or official level the business cases or payment approval for such payments was made in (i) each of the last five years and (ii) 2016 to date.
Answered by Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton
The Ministry of Defence pays overtime to civilian staff below the Senior Civil Service in exceptional circumstances only, with advance agreement from an appropriate senior official. Senior Civil Servants are not eligible to claim any paid overtime. Additional incentives for working overtime are not paid.
As part of this Government's transparency agenda, all Departments are required to publish workforce statistics, including overtime costs. This information is available from the gov.uk website at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/workforce-management-information-mod