Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how long the journey between Dover and the Manston asylum processing site took via Chinook helicopter on 3 November 2022.

The Chinook flight for the Home Secretary was incorporated into a routine training sortie, for the operational crew of four personnel, based at RAF Odiham.

The duration of the training sortie was three and a half hours, including the 30-minute leg to Manston, during which the Home Secretary was embarked. It is not possible to separate the costs of these legs from the wider training sortie.

The Chinook was not diverted away from other defence tasks.