Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether he plans for armed forces personnel stationed overseas to return to the UK to help in tackling the covid-19 outbreak.

Supporting the Government's response to COVID-19 continues to be Defence's main effort. There are nearly 3,000 members of the Armed Forces deployed in the UK to assist Civil Authorities with the response. They are part of over 19,000 Defence personnel in the COVID Support Force stood ready to support. The availability of UK-based personnel means that there is currently no need to return personnel stationed overseas to support the COVID-19 effort in the UK.