Tag: Brendan O’Hara

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Brendan O’Hara on 2016-02-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether an assessment was made of the (a) decontamination, (b) environmental and (c) other costs was before each Astral exercise between February 2011 and November 2012; and what the incremental cost was of each of the major elements for managing the post-incident contamination.

Penny Mordaunt

The Ministry of Defence maintains a Defence Nuclear Emergency Organisation (NEO) to respond in the unlikely event of an emergency involving the transport of defence nuclear materials. The NEO organises regular exercises to test the effectiveness of its emergency response planning and arrangements. These include the Astral series of exercises, which are designed to be challenging, and thus simulate the extremely unlikely event of a release of radioactive material from the transport containers. No radioactive materials are used or released to the environment during the exercises. The specific exercise objectives do not require assessments or estimates of decontamination, environmental or other post-incident decontamination costs or of radiological dose uptakes. The Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) undertook the modelling for each Astral exercise between February 2011 and November 2012.

I am withholding information about the physical state, mass quantity, release fraction and total released radioactivity assumed for these exercises as disclosure would or would be likely to prejudice national security.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Brendan O’Hara on 2016-02-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how soon after publication of the requirements for the second round of consideration of locations for a UK spaceport the Government expects to be able to announce the selected location.

Mr Robert Goodwill

The 2014 Government Spaceplane Review provided the groundwork for enabling spaceplane operations from the UK, including identifying key criteria for locating a UK spaceport, and identifying potential locations based on these. The Government tested the conclusions of this review through consultation and published its response in March 2015. This confirmed Campbeltown, Glasgow Prestwick and Stornoway in Scotland, Llanbedr Airfield in Wales and Newquay in England as potential spaceport locations.

Further information on the Spaceplane review and the Government consultation can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/spaceport-locations-and-criteria

Commercial spaceflight is a complex, international, and evolving market. The Government is considering a range of options on next steps that would best deliver our ambition of a spaceport, and the supporting regulatory environment for spaceflight, within this Parliament.

The Government is in discussion with the US Government on ITAR-related issues. However, ITAR applications are not a factor at this stage for potential spaceport locations but may become so if a US spaceplane operator seeks to operate from the UK.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Brendan O’Hara on 2016-09-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many civilian casualties have resulted from the 26 brimstone missiles dropped by UK aircraft in Syria in 2016 to date.

Mike Penning

The Ministry of Defence is not aware of any credible evidence to date of civilian casualties as a result of UK airstrikes over Syria and Iraq.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Brendan O’Hara on 2015-11-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the reasons are for the time taken to upgrade air defence radars at RRH Benbecula and RRH Buchan to the TPS-77 radar standard.

Mr Philip Dunne

The Type 92 radar has undergone extensive modifications to the signal processing equipment to bring the radar to TPS-77 standard. This complex work required the manufacture and replacement of safety-critical components and extensive testing, whilst also maintaining operational capability, which has necessitated the deployment of an additional radar whilst the Type 92 was being upgraded – all of which has been carefully managed by the Ministry of Defence and delivered to time and within cost.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Brendan O’Hara on 2016-02-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, which agency or organisation undertook the release dispersion and deposition modelling and radiological dose assessment of each Astral exercise between February 2011 and November 2012.

Penny Mordaunt

The Ministry of Defence maintains a Defence Nuclear Emergency Organisation (NEO) to respond in the unlikely event of an emergency involving the transport of defence nuclear materials. The NEO organises regular exercises to test the effectiveness of its emergency response planning and arrangements. These include the Astral series of exercises, which are designed to be challenging, and thus simulate the extremely unlikely event of a release of radioactive material from the transport containers. No radioactive materials are used or released to the environment during the exercises. The specific exercise objectives do not require assessments or estimates of decontamination, environmental or other post-incident decontamination costs or of radiological dose uptakes. The Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) undertook the modelling for each Astral exercise between February 2011 and November 2012.

I am withholding information about the physical state, mass quantity, release fraction and total released radioactivity assumed for these exercises as disclosure would or would be likely to prejudice national security.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Brendan O’Hara on 2016-02-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when the Government plans to issue requirements for the second round of consideration of locations for a UK spaceport.

Mr Robert Goodwill

The 2014 Government Spaceplane Review provided the groundwork for enabling spaceplane operations from the UK, including identifying key criteria for locating a UK spaceport, and identifying potential locations based on these. The Government tested the conclusions of this review through consultation and published its response in March 2015. This confirmed Campbeltown, Glasgow Prestwick and Stornoway in Scotland, Llanbedr Airfield in Wales and Newquay in England as potential spaceport locations.

Further information on the Spaceplane review and the Government consultation can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/spaceport-locations-and-criteria

Commercial spaceflight is a complex, international, and evolving market. The Government is considering a range of options on next steps that would best deliver our ambition of a spaceport, and the supporting regulatory environment for spaceflight, within this Parliament.

The Government is in discussion with the US Government on ITAR-related issues. However, ITAR applications are not a factor at this stage for potential spaceport locations but may become so if a US spaceplane operator seeks to operate from the UK.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Brendan O’Hara on 2016-10-10.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many outstanding applications for mandatory reconsideration of a tax credit decision by Concentrix there are in (a) Warley constituency, (b) Sandwell and (c) the West Midlands.

Jane Ellison

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) does not hold the data broken down specifically by constituency areas. HMRC is currently focused on resolving the outstanding cases but will be preparing regional analysis, which will be available in due course.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Brendan O’Hara on 2015-11-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what operational assessment has been undertaken of proposals to use the upgraded TPS-77 radar systems at RRH Benbecula and RRH Buchan as mitigation for planned wind turbine developments.

Mr Philip Dunne

In respect of the upgrade of the Air Defence radar at Remote Radar Head (RRH) Buchan, the Ministry of Defence (MOD) is in contact with the developers who proposed the upgrade as mitigation for their wind farm proposal.

At RRH Benbecula, the MOD is in contact with the Western Isles Council and developers via the Council’s Working Group. In addition, the MOD provided an Air Defence update at the Aviation Management Board meeting on 5 November 2015 at which Scottish Government, the wind industry and RenewableUK representatives were present.

The MOD continues to undertake full technical and operational assessments of all site specific Air Defence radar mitigation proposals, including those to the upgraded TPS-77 radar systems at RRH Benbecula and RRH Buchan. It remains the responsibility of developers to submit site specific mitigation proposals. The MOD will determine whether the impact upon the radar is of a permissible level.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Brendan O’Hara on 2016-02-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the estimated radiological dose uptake was in terms of (a) individual whole equivalent dose in milli-Sievert and (b) collective dose in man-Sievert for (i) Services and his Department’s civilian personnel involved in and responding to the incident, (ii) civilian emergency services personnel responders attending and (iii) members of the public during each Astral exercise between February 2011 and November 2012.

Penny Mordaunt

The Ministry of Defence maintains a Defence Nuclear Emergency Organisation (NEO) to respond in the unlikely event of an emergency involving the transport of defence nuclear materials. The NEO organises regular exercises to test the effectiveness of its emergency response planning and arrangements. These include the Astral series of exercises, which are designed to be challenging, and thus simulate the extremely unlikely event of a release of radioactive material from the transport containers. No radioactive materials are used or released to the environment during the exercises. The specific exercise objectives do not require assessments or estimates of decontamination, environmental or other post-incident decontamination costs or of radiological dose uptakes. The Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) undertook the modelling for each Astral exercise between February 2011 and November 2012.

I am withholding information about the physical state, mass quantity, release fraction and total released radioactivity assumed for these exercises as disclosure would or would be likely to prejudice national security.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Brendan O’Hara on 2016-05-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, when the Section 104 Order covering fatal accident inquiry military deaths will come into force.

Penny Mordaunt

The Section 104 Order aims to make a Fatal Accident Inquiry (FAI) mandatory for any Service personnel who are killed in the course of their duties in Scotland. This provision will bring Scotland in line with the equivalent position in England and Wales. The Order is scheduled to be made in December 2016 subject to agreement from both UK and Scottish Ministers.