Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether the F35B planes delivered to the UK have experienced (a) over-heating of the horizontal tail, (b) icing of the engine on the ground, (c) icing of the engine in flight, (d) problems with main landing gear tyres and (e) problems with on-board oxygen generation systems; and if he will make a statement.

The UK F-35B aircraft has experienced no problems with over-heating of the horizontal tail nor have there been any issues with icing of the engines, either in-flight or on the ground. There have been eight occurrences of main landing gear tyre issues; this is primarily due to wear and foreign object damage. There was also one occurrence of a problem with the on-board oxygen generation system; this was rectified in-flight by the pilot. All of the issues that have been identified have been discovered during the development test phase and solutions have been developed for all F-35 users.