Tag: Kevan Jones

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevan Jones on 2015-12-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what expenditure his Department plans to make on mental health services for armed forces veterans in (a) 2015-16, (b) 2016-17, (c) 2017-18, (d) 2018-19 and (e) 2019-20.

Alistair Burt

NHS England has £1.8 million per annum baseline (recurrent to 2019/20) funding for veterans mental health services. This funding is used to provide 10 veterans mental health teams across England to meet locally identified needs of veterans and manage the network of providers of NHS commissioned veterans mental health services.

The funding also provides access for veterans to on-line mental health counselling services provided by the Big White Wall.

In addition, NHS England provides £3.2 million a year to commission the Armed Forces service charity Combat Stress to provide specialised inpatient services for the treatment of complex post- traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

In 2014/15 further funding of £1.68 million was used to fund three pilots to develop and test enhanced models of care for veterans.

The pilots will:

– develop a joint substance misuse and mental health service model for veterans;

– develop an outpatient service for veterans with moderate to severe PTSD; and

– develop a modal of care to address the barriers that some veterans experience in accessing mental health services.

Veterans are also able to access the full range of NHS mental health services in the same way as the wider public.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevan Jones on 2016-01-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, when he expects the target strength of army reservists to be met.

Mr Julian Brazier

We expect to reach our target strength of 30,000 Army Reserves by April 2019.

The Army Reserve is growing and during the 12 months to 1 December 2015, we enlisted 6,600 new members, a rise of 50% on the equivalent period last year. The Army Reserve’s trained strength has exceeded the target for this financial year by over 2,300 reservists.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 20 October 2015 to the hon. Member for Strangford (Mr Shannon) to Question 11812 which explained the improvements we have made to ensure we reach our target strength of 35,000 trained volunteer Reservists across all three Services.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevan Jones on 2016-02-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many armed forces personnel are expected to be deployed in support of the UN and African Union missions to Somalia.

Penny Mordaunt

The UK is preparing to deploy approximately 300 troops to the UN mission in South Sudan, focussed on providing vital engineering support. Up to 70 troops will also deploy to Somalia, as part of UN support for the African Union force building stability in the country and countering the threat posed by the terrorist group al-Shabaab.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevan Jones on 2016-03-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what vehicle the Royal Artillery’s 32 and 47 Regiments will operate instead of the Warthog once the Bv206 has been retired.

Mr Philip Dunne

The Warthog vehicle entered service in 2010 as an urgent operational requirement for use in Afghanistan. Since the end of operations in Afghanistan a range of armoured vehicles purchased specifically for operations in that theatre have been brought into the MOD’s core inventory; the Warthog vehicle was not one of these. The options for disposing of the Warthog are now being considered, including the possiblity of an export route, but no decisions have been taken at this time.

5 and 32 Regiments Royal Artillery will receive the Bulldog armoured vehicle as a replacement for Warthog. 47 Regiment Royal Artillery will continue to use the Coyote armoured vehicle.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevan Jones on 2016-06-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether the P-8 Poseidon will be capable of carrying UK Storm Shadow and other manufactured munitions.

Mr Philip Dunne

The Department intends to bring the P-8A into service without significant modification to ensure the delivery of operational capability as soon as is practicable. There are no current plans to integrate Stormshadow or other UK manufactured weapons onto the aircraft.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevan Jones on 2016-07-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the role will be of (a) Leonardo helicopters and (b) that helicopter’s production facility in Yeovil in the long-term support work for the AH-64E Apache when it enters service between 2022 and 2024.

Harriett Baldwin

Leonardo Helicopters will continue to lead on providing support to our existing Apache Mk 1 helicopters until they are retired from service in 2023-24.We have yet to decide the support arrangements for our new AH-64E Apache helicopters beyond the initial period of support that will be provided through the US Government.

The Ministry of Defence has signed a Strategic Partnering Arrangement with Leonardo Helicopters that will ensure that we continue to work together to enhance national prosperity through export success, and that the right innovation and technologies are available in the UK to meet our future defence requirements.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevan Jones on 2016-09-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, when he expects the Estate Optimisation Strategy to be published.

Mark Lancaster

As set out in the Strategic Defence and Security Review, the Ministry of Defence is aiming to reduce the size of its built estate by 30% by 2040 and is committed to release land to accommodate 55,000 houses by 2020 in support of the Government’s public sector land release agenda. This year I have announced the release of 35 sites which will provide land for potentially some 39,000 homes, of which approximately 20,000 are expected in this Parliament. We do not have an annual target for a reduction in the defence estate each year.

I will announce the results of the Department’s Estate Optimisation Strategy later this year.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevan Jones on 2015-12-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what his Department’s planned expenditure is on television recruitment campaigns for the (a) Royal Navy and (b) Royal Navy Reserve in (i) 2015-16, (ii) 2016-17, (iii) 2017-18, (iv) 2018-19 and (v) 2019-20.

Penny Mordaunt

The expenditure, or planned expenditure, of each Service on television recruitment campaigns in Financial Year (FY) 2015-16 is as follows:

Naval Service – planned expenditure has not been finalised but is currently forecast to be £4.3 million for Regular personnel and £0.72 million for Reserves.

Army – planned expenditure is £0.94 million for Regular personnel and £0.65 million for Reserves.

Royal Air Force (RAF) – planned expenditure has not been finalised but is currently forecast to be £3.46 million. It is not possible to differentiate between Regular and Reserve spend as the majority of RAF advertisements are targeted towards both cadres.

Plans for expenditure in FY 2016-17 and onwards have not been finalised.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevan Jones on 2016-01-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many members of the (a) Army Reserve, (b) Royal Auxiliary Air Force and (c) Royal Navy Reserve have signed terms and conditions of service under the New Employment Model.

Mr Julian Brazier

The terms and conditions (TACOS) of all UK Armed Forces personnel are subject to a rolling programme of change under the New Employment Model (NEM), which is modernising Pay and Allowances; Accommodation; Training and Education; and Career Structures and Career Management. Where appropriate this will include Reserves. Personnel are not required to sign new TACOS in order to benefit from relevant changes, which will continue to be rolled out until 2020.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevan Jones on 2016-02-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many UK armed forces personnel have been committed to NATO’s Very High Readiness Joint Task Force.

Mr Julian Brazier

The numbers of UK personnel committed to NATO’s Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VHRJTF), is set out below:

Year	Number of Personnel
2016	1,200
2017	3,500-4,000

The UK will be the lead nation for the VHRJTF in 2017. The exact number of UK personnel for 2017 will not be confirmed until the contributions from other NATO members has been finalised.