Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many overseas requests for case-specific military and security assistance have been (a) approved and (b) declined by his Department in (i) 2015-16, (ii) 2016-17, (iii) 2017-18, (iv) 2018-19, (v) 2019-20 and (vi) 2020-21.

The number of activities assessed to fall within the scope of “military and security assistance” is set out below for each year. [This covers a variety of categories of assistance, ranging for example from development of infrastructure to logistical support to provision of defence advisers or other embedded personnel. The figures exclude certain international activities conducted primarily in support of direct UK interests, such as exercises and operations.]

Given requests for assistance come from a variety of places we do not keep a record of the number we have rejected.