Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the role of hydrogen technology in reducing aviation carbon emissions to net zero by 2050, and what steps they are taking to accelerate the adoption of hydrogen-powered aircraft.
Answered by Lord Davies of Gower - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government’s Jet Zero Strategy, published in July 2022, set out our approach to achieving net zero UK aviation by 2050 through multiple different measures. The use of hydrogen is considered in the Zero Emission Flight chapter of the Strategy.
The Strategy anticipates that hydrogen will be first deployed in short haul aviation with recognised uncertainty on the potential for and timing of its scaling up for use in long haul. As with all measures in the Jet Zero Strategy the Government keeps the evidence base under regular review and any changes will be reflected in future updates to the Strategy.
Between 2013 and 2030, industry and government will invest over £5 billion to develop transformational aircraft technology through the Aerospace Technology Institute Programme. This includes co-investment in industry led projects to develop hydrogen aircraft in the UK.
In 2022 a Delivery Group of the government and industry forum the Jet Zero Council was established to accelerate the adoption of zero emission flight.
Asked by: Baroness Randerson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Future of Flight Action Plan, published on 18 March, what is their timeline to achieve operational ‘temporary reserved areas’ by end of 2024.
Answered by Lord Davies of Gower - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Operational temporary reserved areas (TRAs) are in use now and throughout 2024 for Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (UAS) trials, enabling the CAA to validate the use of airspace policy concepts with real world use cases.
Asked by: Ben Bradshaw (Labour - Exeter)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many arms export licences have been issued for (a) equipment and (b) parts of equipment for American built F-35 aircraft in the last 10 years.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
HM Government publishes data on export licensing decisions on a quarterly basis in the Official Statistics. This covers all requested data up until 30 June 2023.
This data is available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/strategic-export-controls-licensing-data.
Asked by: Ben Bradshaw (Labour - Exeter)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many arms export licences are currently active for (a) equipment and (b) parts of equipment used in American built F-35 aircraft.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
HM Government publishes data on export licensing decisions on a quarterly basis in the Official Statistics. This covers all requested data up until 30 June 2023.
This data is available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/strategic-export-controls-licensing-data.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham, Hodge Hill)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether the Open General Export Licence for exports in support of joint strike fighter: F-35 Lightning II has been reviewed since October 2023.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government continues to monitor closely the situation in Israel and Gaza.
The Government can and does respond quickly and flexibly to changing international circumstances. All export licences, including Open General Export Licences, are kept under careful and continual review as standard. We are able to amend, suspend or revoke extant licences and refuse new licence applications as circumstances require.
Any changes to Open General Export Licences would be communicated through a Notice to Exporters which would be published on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Ben Bradshaw (Labour - Exeter)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many and what proportion of domestic arms export licences are active for (a) equipment and (b) parts of equipment used in American built F-16 aircraft.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
HM Government publishes data on export licensing decisions on a quarterly basis in the Official Statistics. This covers all requested data up until 30 June 2023.
This data is available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/strategic-export-controls-licensing-data.
Asked by: Ben Bradshaw (Labour - Exeter)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many arms export licences have been issued for (a) equipment and (b) parts of equipment for American built F16 aircraft in the last 10 years.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
HM Government publishes data on export licensing decisions on a quarterly basis in the Official Statistics. This covers all requested data up until 30 June 2023.
This data is available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/strategic-export-controls-licensing-data.
Asked by: Maria Eagle (Labour - Garston and Halewood)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many people were employed in the Multi Mission Aircraft Team at Defence Equipment and Support on average in each year from 2019 to 2024 as of 20 March.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The number of Full Time Equivalent (FTE) employed within the A400 and Voyager, Air ISTAR, Air Transport, Multi Mission and Strategic Planning delivery teams in each Financial Year (FY) since 2019 as at 31 March, is detailed in the table below. The figures include civilian and military employees and workforce substitutes.
Figures for 2023-24 will not be available until the end of the FY.
Financial Year | A400 and Voyager delivery | Strategic Planning | Air ISTAR delivery | Air Transport delivery | Multi Mission delivery |
2018-19 | 104.7 | Team did not exist | 188.9 | 161 | 43.74 |
2019-20 | 110.4 | 18.3 | 186.67 | 181.97 | 45 |
2020-21 | 109.5 | 20.5 | 180.73 | 157.92 | 55.5 |
2021-22 | 151.4 | 18.3 | 164.15 | 168.65 | 74.2 |
2022-23 | 177.6 | 16.9 | 143.86 | 165.9 | 80.18 |
Asked by: Maria Eagle (Labour - Garston and Halewood)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 21 December to Question 7163 on Air Force: Military Aircraft, when he plans to send the response letter to the Rt hon. Member for Garston and Halewood.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
I responded to the right hon. Member on 22 March 2024. A copy of my letter has been placed in the Library of the House.
Asked by: Maria Eagle (Labour - Garston and Halewood)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much his Department has spent on Air ISTAR in each financial year since 2019-20.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Air ISTAR total spend on equipment costs by financial year is as follows:
FY | Total spend (£million) |
2019-20 | 302.925 |
2020-21 | 319.208 |
2021-22 | 246.961 |
2022-23 | 183.014 |
The Air ISTAR total spend on operating costs by financial year is as follows:
FY | Total spend (£million) |
2019-20 | 30.236 |
2020-21 | 25.847 |
2021-22 | 18.070 |
2022-23 | 16.099 |
The Air ISTAR team is a specific project team in DE&S and the figures above represent the total spend of that team. The figure does not represent the total spend on all Air ISTAR projects across Defence.