Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what estimate he has made of the number of ARAP eligible Afghans currently staying in British High Commission supported hotels in Islamabad.
Answered by Al Carns - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for Veterans)
Currently, there are approximately 30 ARAP eligible Afghans under the care of the British High Commission in Islamabad. 13 ARAP eligible Afghans under the care of the British High Commission have been deported to Afghanistan.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy-eligible Afghans living in British High Commission-supported hotels in Islamabad have been deported to Afghanistan.
Answered by Al Carns - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for Veterans)
Currently, there are approximately 30 ARAP eligible Afghans under the care of the British High Commission in Islamabad. 13 ARAP eligible Afghans under the care of the British High Commission have been deported to Afghanistan.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) has been found within their Department's estate.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Shadow Secretary of State for Defence
For now, the focus is on bringing together the information we hold about the Government estate into one place. This work is being coordinated by the Office for Government Property.
Surveys are currently being conducted to identify buildings which may have been constructed with RAAC on Ministry of Defence (MOD) land.
We take safety extremely seriously and, based on our current information, RAAC has not traditionally been used by the MOD in the construction of domestic structure, and it is therefore highly unlikely that any Service Family Accommodation is affected. The majority of Single Living Accommodation was not constructed during the review period.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, on how many occasions a request for a meeting by an hon. Member was not agreed to by (a) a Minister and (b) their office on behalf of a Minister in the last 12 months.
Answered by Andrew Murrison
The information is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many sewage leaks have been recorded within their Department's estate in the last twelve months.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Shadow Secretary of State for Defence
Water and wastewater services across the majority of the Defence Estate sites in Great Britain are provided by five service providers. Those service providers have confirmed to the Ministry of Defence (MOD) that a total of 102 sewage leaks have been recorded from sewage treatment facilities on the Defence Estate within the last 12 months.
The sewage leaks occurred at four sites: Culdrose, RAF Henlow, Lyneham, and Faslane, all of which have a Storm Overflow Consent issued by the regulator (The Environment Agency for England and Wales, and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) for Scotland). The MOD complies with appropriate legislation and Environment Agency requirements.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many Deduction of Earnings Requests from the Child Maintenance Service were declined by Defence Business Services in each financial year from 2013-14 to 2022-23; and for what reasons were they declined.
Answered by Andrew Murrison
The supporting table details the number of Deduction of Earnings Requests from the Child Maintenance Service that were received and could not be processed in each financial year from 2013-14 to 2022-23, and the reasons they could not be processed.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much his Department spent on external consultants in each of the last five years.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
The Department maintains a central record of overall Consultancy expenditure which is disclosed as part of the Annual Report and Accounts (ARAC) and for ease of reference the values reported for all Consultancy since 2016 are as follows:
FY2020-21 £109.668 million [ARAC 20/21 page 171]
FY2019-20 £98.080 million [ARAC 20/21 page 171]
FY2018-19 £116.914 million [ARAC 19/20 page 126]
FY2017-18 £49.955 million [ARAC 18/19 page 147]
FY2016-17 £60.500 million [ARAC 16/17 page 113]
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment his Department has been made of the potential impact on security of converting Military Provost Guard Service positions at Leuchars base to civilian posts.
Answered by Leo Docherty
Over the next four years, the Army Guarding Transition Plan (AGTP) will seek to transform Army guarding services, blending the Military Provost Guard Service (MPGS) workforce with Ministry of Defence Guard Service (MGS) personnel.
Leuchars Station will retain some armed MPGS personnel and, in accordance with Defence Security Policy, will convert certain tasks that do not require an armed guard over to unarmed MGS personnel. This blended model will not affect the security of Leuchars Station and is already an effective and common guarding model utilised successfully at other Army establishments.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will publish in full his Ministerial diary for 20 May 2020.
Answered by Ben Wallace
Ministers regularly meet with Departmental officials and external stakeholders. Details of Ministerial meetings are published quarterly and can be found on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
What assessment he has made of the impact on armed forces personnel and their families of the decrease in average annual real-term growth from 2021 to 2025 in day-to-day spending of his Department, as a result of the Autumn Budget and Spending Review 2021.
Answered by Ben Wallace
Defence’s budget is growing year on year over the spending review period. We received a record settlement for Defence in 2020 of £16.5 billion. From 2019-20, the total Defence budget’s annual growth is 1.5% in real terms, with CDEL increasing from £10.3 billion in 2019-20 to £16.2 billion in 2024-25, and RDEL increasing from £30.6 billion to £32.4 billion.
This year Defence also received over £2 billion additional funding for running costs to counteract costs arising from the Health and Social Care Levy and expected increases in inflation in the wider economy.