The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2015-11-26.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether the Boeing P8 Maritime Patrol Aircraft will be capable of being refuelled by RAF Voyagers aircraft.
Mr Philip Dunne
The P-8A uses the ‘boom and receptacle’ method of in-flight refuelling. As such, the P-8A will not be able to refuel from RAF Voyager Aircraft, which use a different configuration for air-to-air refuelling.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2015-11-26.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the strategic rationale is for the change in the total number of Type 26 frigates to be built.
Mr Philip Dunne
The Strategic Defence and Security Review (Cm9161) endorsed the requirement for eight of the anti-submarine warfare variant of the Type 26 Global Combat Ship to replace the eight Type 23 frigates that currently fulfil this role. The review also concluded that the remainder of the Navy’s future frigate requirement would be better met by a new class of lighter, flexible, general purpose frigates than by the five general purpose Type 26 ships previously planned. This new class of frigate will be procured in greater numbers enabling an increase in the size of the Navy’s destroyer and frigate fleet above the 19 ships currently in service. This will further improve the Royal Navy’s ability to deliver the full range of defence, warfighting and maritime security tasks well into the middle of the 21st Century.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2015-11-26.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much of his Department’s budget has been spent on science and technology in each year since 2010.
Mr Philip Dunne
Expenditure from the centralised Ministry of Defence Science and Technology Programme under the Department’s Chief Scientific Adviser for each year since 2010 (inclusive of non-recoverable VAT at current prices) is given below:
|
Financial Year |
Defence Science and Technology programme expenditure (£million) |
|
2010-11 |
422 |
|
2011-12 |
432 |
|
2012-13 |
444 |
|
2013-14 |
435 |
|
2014-15 |
436 |
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2015-11-26.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to page 33 of the Strategic Defence and Security Review 2015, if he will set out the elements of the new pay model for members of the armed forces.
Penny Mordaunt
We will provide further updates on Armed Forces Pay Reform in 2016.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2015-11-26.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the target strength is for the Royal Air Force Reserve.
Mr Julian Brazier
I refer the hon. Member to the Written Statement made by my right hon. Friend the previous Secretary of State for Defence (Philip Hammond) on 19 December 2013, (Official Report, column 124WS) on Future Reserves 2020, and the accompanying document that was placed in the Library of the House which sets out the planned growth of the trained strength of the Reserve Forces, together with the enlistment targets for the next five years.
I also 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 by 31 March 2019.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2015-12-14.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much his Department plans to spend on armed forces veterans’ mental health services 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 National Health Service 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 additional funding of £1.68 million was used to fund three pilots to develop and test enhanced models of care for veterans.
The pilots will:
NHS England will soon commence a consultation to explore the future service needs for veterans mental health services. Future procurement will depend upon the outcome of this consultation as services will be commissioned to take account of revised needs assessments.
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 Maria Eagle on 2015-12-14.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what estimate he has made of the length of time it would take to deploy 10,000 armed forces personnel in the event of a civil emergency.
Mark Lancaster
The Ministry of Defence has developed a comprehensive deployment plan for this force in cooperation with the police and Home Office; this includes timescales to deploy.
I am withholding information about response times for reasons of operational security.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2016-01-26.
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what his Department’s planned expenditure on grant-in-aid to Arts Council England is for (a) 2016-17, (b) 2017-18, (c) 2018-19 and (d) 2019-20.
Mr Edward Vaizey
DCMS secured an excellent settlement in the latest Spending Round that highlights the important contributions our sectors make in job creation, helping grow our economy, and bringing arts and culture to communities across the UK. Arts Council England’s overall settlement over the Spending Review period maintains the current resource budget in cash terms – £354,042,000 in 2016/17; £350,724,000 in 2017/8; £357,593,000 in 2018/19 and £359,307,000 in 2019/20.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2016-01-26.
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, when he expects the Clementi review into governance of the BBC to be published.
Mr Edward Vaizey
We expect the independent review of the governance and regulation of the BBC to conclude shortly, and we will publish it in due course.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Eagle on 2016-02-02.
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if he will estimate the total annual cost to the UK economy of broadband connections that do not reach Ofcom’s acceptable minimum speed of 10Mbit/s.
Mr Edward Vaizey
The economic benefits of broadband are clear – and that is why we have done and invested more that ever since 2010 than ever to ensure that 95% of homes and businesses right across the UK will have access to superfast broadband by the end of 2017. The benefits are supported by SQW Consulting’s UK Broadband impact study in 2013 estimated that the availability and take-up of faster broadband speeds will add about £17 billion to the UK’s annual Gross Value Added (GVA) by 2024.
In November, the Prime Minister announced our ambition to implement a new broadband Universal Service Obligation (USO) at 10 Mbps. This new broadband USO will give people the legal right to request an affordable broadband connection from a designated provider, up to a reasonable cost threshold, no matter where they live. We will be consulting on these proposals shortly.