Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the potential effect on parliamentary accountability of the EU defence structures that the UK has joined since the EU referendum in 2016.

The Government continues to ensure that parliamentary accountability for UK-EU defence cooperation is maintained. In addition to the public speeches made by the Prime Minister and the white paper of last July, the Government provided further clarification in September, in its response to the House of Commons Defence Committee report, on its proposals for a future security partnership with the EU. The Government has also participated in parliamentary debates or hearings on Permanent Structured Cooperation last April, Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) Operation Sophia last June, the European Defence Industrial Development Programme last November and on CSDP missions and operations in May this year. The Government will continue to provide regular updates to both European Scrutiny Committees in Parliament.