Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many Libyan soldiers previously in receipt of UK military training at Bassingbourn have been withdrawn; and how many such people are (a) facing criminal charges and (b) have received convictions (i) in the UK and (ii) abroad.

Prior to the start of General Purpose Force training on 11 June 2014, the UK had several discussions with the Libyan government about the selection and vetting of the Libyan trainees. These conversations also included representations from the United States and Italy.

The Libyan government provided trainee candidates who had been through Libyan vetting and selection processes. These candidates were then subject to additional UK vetting in Libya, to ensure that those selected met Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Ministry of Defence and Home Office requirements on security, immigration, medical, physical, literacy and numeracy criteria; in addition, the selected cohort comprised a suitable geographic representation of Libya. Home Office visa processes included checks against UK criminal databases and a visa declaration by all trainees which confirmed that they held no criminal convictions or charges in the UK or elsewhere.

We are not aware that any of those candidates who passed UK screening had criminal convictions or faced charges at that time in the UK or elsewhere.

During the course of training the Libyan General Purpose Force (GPF) we are aware of sixteen individuals being arrested. Of these five have been remanded in custody while facing the following criminal charges:

Three counts of sexual assault, one count of theft of a pedal cycle and one count of exposure.

Three counts of sexual assault and one count of theft of a pedal cycle.

Two counts of sexual assault, one count of theft of a pedal cycle and one count of using threatening/abusive/insulting words/behaviour to cause harassment/alarm/distress against a police officer.

One count of rape.

One count of rape.

All other trainees at Bassingbourn have been returned to Libya.

A team has been set up to produce for the Defence Secretary before Christmas an objective report into the GPF training. It is led by a MOD senior civil servant who was not involved in the original work, supported by a senior civil servant loaned from another Government Department to provide an additional element of independence and challenge.