Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the “Defence Diplomacy Strategy, Keeping Britain Safe: secure at home and strong abroad”, page 30, by when does he plan to have reviewed our defence language provision.

As part of the implementation of the Defence Diplomacy Strategy, the Ministry of Defence is reviewing options to strengthen language proficiency across Defence and to enhance the language training available to internationally facing personnel. This work includes assessing how the current language provision delivered through the Defence Academy could be better utilised and expanded, exploring opportunities for closer cooperation with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, and making use of new enablers, such as the Pan‑Defence Skills Framework, to identify, track and develop language proficiency across Defence.

The scoping phase for this review is currently underway, which will determine the formal completion date. Defence is progressing this work alongside wider efforts to invest in our people, processes and technology to implement the direction of the Defence Diplomacy Strategy.