Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what plans he has to replace the Hawk T1 fleet used by the Red Arrows.
Answered by Maria Eagle
The Strategic Defence Review recommended that the Hawk T1 and T2 be replaced with a cost-effective advanced jet trainer. The future platform of the Royal Air Force aerobatic team is being considered at the same time, and a programme team is being established to deliver that capability.
Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much funding his Department has allocated to (a) the Red Arrows and (b) other military display teams in the Spending Review 2025.
Answered by Maria Eagle
The Spending Review has set the Ministry of Defence's Departmental Expenditure Limits until Financial Year 2028-29 for Resource and until 2029-30 for Capital. These are at high-level and do not specify all spend across the Department.
Funding for individual activities, such as display teams, will be decided on an annual basis as usual.
Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to his Department's response to the Quinquennial Review of the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme 2023 published on 21 March 2024, what progress he has made on establishing the Communications and Training Working Group; and what is the (a) membership and (b) terms of reference of that group.
Answered by Al Carns - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for Veterans)
The Government response to the Quinquennial Review (QQR) of the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme 2022-23 was published on 21 March 2024 under the previous administration.
The Communication and Training Working Group was not recommended in the QQR, but was a suggestion in the previous Government's response to resolve recommendations 5, 6, 7 and 8, relating to improving operational transparency, accuracy and communication.
We are focusing on the modernisation of pensions and compensation services including improving, digitalisation and consolidation of core member data records into a single system, as well as the planned introduction of an online member self-service portal.
Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
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 who were in receipt of the (a) War Disablement Pension, (b) Armed Forces Compensation Scheme, (c) Service Invaliding Pension and (d) Service Attributable Pension on 2 September 2024.
Answered by Al Carns - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for Veterans)
As at 30 June 2024, the latest date for when data is available, 78,469 veterans were in receipt of a disablement pension under the War Pension Scheme (WPS) and 4,798 veterans were in receipt of a Guaranteed Income Payment (GIP) following an injury/illness claim under the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme (AFCS).
As at 4 September 2024, the estimated number of veterans in receipt of a Service Invaliding Pension (SIP) is 12,744 and the estimated number of veterans in receipt of a Service Attributable Pension (SAP) is 1,685.