Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of extending health and safety legislation to cover armed forces personnel serving overseas.

Given the nature of defence operations, our personnel are often asked to work in challenging environments around the world. For this reason, it would not be practical to apply health and safety legislation that has been developed to provide safe working environments within the UK, when overseas. I would like to provide reassurance that the Ministry of Defence (MOD) does seek to comply with local health and safety standards and where these local standards fall below those expected within UK, the MOD applies UK standards so far as it is reasonably practicable.