The below Parliamentary question was asked by Brendan O’Hara on 2016-09-02.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what plans his Department has to review the eligibility for the operational allowance for service personnel.
Mark Lancaster
We review eligible locations every six months as standard but Ministers have no plans to change the qualifying criteria.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Brendan O’Hara on 2015-11-06.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 30 October 2015 to Question 14252, what estimate he has made of his Department’s likely strength of civilian personnel based in Scotland on 1 April (a) 2016 and (b) 2020 for each top level budget.
Michael Fallon
It has not been possible in the time available to provide a geographical breakdown of projected estimated civilian personnel strengths by Top Level Budget. Ministry of Defence (MOD) officials will investigate what information can be provided and I will write in due course.
As at 1 July 2015 the MOD employed 3,770 civilian personnel at locations in Scotland. A breakdown by Unitary Authority can be found in the Quarterly Locations Report, the latest edition of which can be found at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/location-of-uk-regular-service-and-civilian-personnel-quarterly-statistics-2015
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Brendan O’Hara on 2016-02-02.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether British military advisers have been present in control rooms of the Saudi-led coalition engaged in conflict in Yemen.
Penny Mordaunt
We have deployed a small number of military personnel serving as liaison officers in Saudi headquarters to provide insight into Saudi operations. They remain under UK command and control. These liaison officers are not involved in the targeting process – whether it be the selection, decision making or directing.
British personnel are not involved in carrying out strikes, directing or conducting operations in Yemen or selecting targets and are not involved in the Saudi targeting decision-making process.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Brendan O’Hara on 2016-02-29.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps the Government plans to take to mitigate the costs of and time taken for International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) applications related to the UK spaceport in order to facilitate investment and involvement from the US; and what steps the Government is taking to work with the US to ensure that ITAR is applied in a way that precludes a need for multiple applications to be made for discrete systems and single vehicle types.
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 2016-09-06.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many Brimstone missiles have been used in Syria in each month since December 2015.
Mike Penning
The following number of Brimstone missiles have been released by UK aircraft engaged on Operation SHADER in Syria.
|
Year |
Month |
|
|
2015 |
December |
0 |
|
2016 |
January |
17 |
|
February |
2 |
|
|
March |
0 |
|
|
April |
0 |
|
|
May |
0 |
|
|
June |
1 |
|
|
July |
0 |
|
|
August |
6 |
“
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Brendan O’Hara on 2015-11-20.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether his Department will meet the revised December 2015 target for upgrading air defence radars at RRH Benbecula and RRH Buchan to the TPS-77 radar standard.
Mr Philip Dunne
The Type 92 radars at Remote Radar Heads Buchan and Benbecula have both been upgraded to the TPS-77 standard; the Buchan upgrade was completed on 30 March 2015 and the Benbecula upgrade on 3 July 2015.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Brendan O’Hara on 2016-02-09.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the nature and quantity was of the nuclear materials released in terms of (a) its physical state, (b) its mass quantity, (c) the release fraction assumed for each transportation package and (d) the total released radioactivity in Becquerels for 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, whether the Government plans to issue further requirements for a UK spaceport after the second round of consideration of locations is completed.
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 2016-09-06.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether his Department plans to end payment of the operational allowance to armed forces personnel serving in South Sudan.
Mark Lancaster
We review eligible locations every six months as standard but Ministers have no plans to change the qualifying criteria.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Brendan O’Hara on 2015-11-20.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department has taken to communicate to local authorities and developers of onshore wind renewables projects the effect of the time taken to upgrade air defence radars at RRH Benbecula and RRH Buchan.
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.