Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether his Department has concluded its assessment of offers to conduct cold weather training from (a) Canada, (b) Finland and (c) Iceland; and if he will make a statement.

We recognise the importance of having forces that are capable of operating in harsh environments and welcome offers from our allies and partners to conduct cold weather training. The Army will be sending observers to Canada for the 2019 Op NANOOK cold weather training exercise, and we are assessing cold weather training opportunities in Finland. We will be deploying RAF Typhoons to Iceland later this year as part of the NATO Air Policing mission. Future provision of cold weather training is being considered in the Arctic Strategy which we plan to publish this spring.