Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department took to vet Libyan personnel prior to their commencing military training at Bassingbourn barracks; and if he will make a statement.

Prior to the start of General Purpose Force training on 11 June 2014, the UK had numerous discussions with the Libyan government on the selection and vetting of Libyan trainees. These conversations included the United States and Italy. The Libyan government provided trainee candidates who had been through Libyan vetting and selection processes. These candidates were subject to additional UK vetting in Libya to ensure those selected met Foreign Office, Ministry of Defence and Home Office requirements on security, immigration, medical, physical, literacy, and numeracy criteria as well as meeting a distribution of trainees that was geographically representative of Libya. Home Office visa processes included checks against UK criminal databases and a visa declaration by all trainees that confirmed 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.