Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, which RAF base the Chinook helicopter used to fly the Home Secretary to Manston asylum processing centre on 3 November 2022 is usually stationed at.

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.