Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, when Government officials were first informed that ex-Armed Forces personnel were being hired by the Chinese Government to train the Chinese armed forces.

The recruitment of ex-Service pilots in order to understand our capabilities has been a concern within the Ministry of Defence for a number of years. However, we are taking decisive steps to stop Chinese recruitment schemes attempting to headhunt serving and former UK Armed Forces pilots to train People's Liberation Army personnel in China. All serving and former personnel are already subject to the Official Secrets Act, and we are reviewing the use of confidentiality contracts and non-disclosure agreements across Defence, while the new National Security Bill will create additional tools to tackle contemporary security challenges, including this one.