Show Search Form

Search Results

registered interest	true false
date	exactly: or between: and
answering body
answering dept id
answering dept short name
answering dept sort name
hansard heading
house id
legislature	pref label
question text
tabling member constituency
tabling member printed
uin
answer	is ministerial correction true false date of answer exactly: or between: and answer text answering member constituency answering member printed grouped question UIN question first answered answering member label
tabling member	label

Search

1682556

registered interest
date	16/01/2024
answering body	Ministry of Defence
answering dept id	11
answering dept short name	Defence
answering dept sort name	Defence
hansard heading	Army: Commonwealth
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what his Department's policy is on the roles Commonwealth soldiers are eligible to apply for while serving in the British Army.
tabling member constituency	Midlothian
tabling member printed	Owen Thompson
uin	9899
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/01/2024 answer text <p>Commonwealth citizens are eligible to apply to join the UK Armed Forces. Like their British and Irish counterparts, they must meet the required eligibility criteria including age, educational, fitness and medical, as well as UK residency for security vetting purposes which varies depending on rank and role. In addition, since November 2018 there has been an annual limit of up to 1,350 Commonwealth citizens who can be recruited each year by the Armed Forces. The Army also has a 15% limit on the number of Commonwealth citizens serving in each cap badge. These requirements can limit the number of roles available at a particular time.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency South West Wiltshire answering member printed Dr Andrew Murrison question first answered 26/01/2024 10:54:30 answering member 1466 label Biography information for Dr Andrew Murrison
tabling member	4482 label Biography information for Owen Thompson

1680288

registered interest
date	19/12/2023
answering body	Ministry of Defence
answering dept id	11
answering dept short name	Defence
answering dept sort name	Defence
hansard heading	Armed Forces: Recruitment
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of trends in the level of armed forces recruitment since 2020.
tabling member constituency	Midlothian
tabling member printed	Owen Thompson
uin	900873
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/01/2024 answer text <p>The Armed Forces continue to meet all their current commitments, keeping the country and its interests safe. The Government remain committed to ensuring that this country has the world class Armed Forces that it needs and deserves.</p><p> </p><p>Defence is firmly focused on responding to the current recruitment challenges faced across the western world, with a range of measures now, anticipating the successor Armed Forces Recruitment Programme.</p> answering member constituency South West Wiltshire answering member printed Dr Andrew Murrison question first answered 08/01/2024 16:43:13 answering member 1466 label Biography information for Dr Andrew Murrison
tabling member	4482 label Biography information for Owen Thompson

1674582

registered interest
date	01/12/2023
answering body	Ministry of Defence
answering dept id	11
answering dept short name	Defence
answering dept sort name	Defence
hansard heading	Armed Forces Compensation Scheme: Tax Allowances
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will hold discussions with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the potential merits of granting tax-free status to the Survivors' Guaranteed Income Payment.
tabling member constituency	Midlothian
tabling member printed	Owen Thompson
uin	4847
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/12/2023 answer text <p>The Department has no current plans to discuss with the Chancellor of the Exchequer making the Survivors’ Guaranteed Income Payment (SGIP) tax free. The SGIP is paid to dependents who may have other sources of income and therefore it is taken into account for tax purposes.</p> answering member constituency South West Wiltshire answering member printed Dr Andrew Murrison question first answered 11/12/2023 17:12:54 answering member 1466 label Biography information for Dr Andrew Murrison
tabling member	4482 label Biography information for Owen Thompson

1658369

registered interest
date	05/09/2023
answering body	Ministry of Defence
answering dept id	11
answering dept short name	Defence
answering dept sort name	Defence
hansard heading	War Widow(er)s: Pensions
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many war widows had their war pensions wrongly classed as taxable income in (a) 2020, (b) 2021 and (c) 2022; and how many times his Department has been asked to rectify their records accordingly in this time period.
tabling member constituency	Midlothian
tabling member printed	Owen Thompson
uin	197882
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/09/2023 answer text <p>I can confirm that the War Widow Pension has not been taxable since 1979 as per Section 639 of the Income Tax (earnings and Pensions) Act 2003.</p><p>Any tax wrongly applied to the payment would be as a result of a tax code provided by HMRC, which is responsible for correcting any tax records.</p> answering member constituency South West Wiltshire answering member printed Dr Andrew Murrison question first answered 19/09/2023 14:37:06 answering member 1466 label Biography information for Dr Andrew Murrison
tabling member	4482 label Biography information for Owen Thompson

1651619

registered interest
date	10/07/2023
answering body	Ministry of Defence
answering dept id	11
answering dept short name	Defence
answering dept sort name	Defence
hansard heading	Veterans
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether the comments by the Minister for Veterans' Affairs in The Guardian and other media on 4 July 2023 resulted in complaints to his Department.
tabling member constituency	Midlothian
tabling member printed	Owen Thompson
uin	193207
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 18/07/2023 answer text <p>The requested information is not held centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.</p><p><br> Complaints, from both internal and external parties, can be received at many levels within the Department, and at varying degrees of formality, which are not collated centrally. The exercise required to retrieve this information would incur disproportionate cost.</p> answering member constituency South West Wiltshire answering member printed Dr Andrew Murrison question first answered 18/07/2023 10:14:21 answering member 1466 label Biography information for Dr Andrew Murrison
tabling member	4482 label Biography information for Owen Thompson

1647616

registered interest
date	20/06/2023
answering body	Ministry of Defence
answering dept id	11
answering dept short name	Defence
answering dept sort name	Defence
hansard heading	Armed Forces: Cost of Living
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to support armed forces personnel with increases in the cost of living.
tabling member constituency	Midlothian
tabling member printed	Owen Thompson
uin	905616
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/06/2023 answer text <p>We have introduced a full range of measures to support our people coping with the cost of living, including capping subsidised accommodation charge increases to 1%; increasing travel allowances by 7% and over 32,000 Service personnel have received a Contribution in Lieu of Council Tax (CILOCT) rebate of £150. The Energy Bills Support Scheme (EBSS) also delivered a £400 non-repayable discount to eligible households, to help with energy bills and families can save around £3,400 per child per year through our wraparound childcare.</p> answering member constituency South West Wiltshire answering member printed Dr Andrew Murrison question first answered 26/06/2023 16:20:36 answering member 1466 label Biography information for Dr Andrew Murrison
tabling member	4482 label Biography information for Owen Thompson

1644618

registered interest
date	14/06/2023
answering body	Ministry of Defence
answering dept id	11
answering dept short name	Defence
answering dept sort name	Defence
hansard heading	Armed Forces: Surveys
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether he plans to publish regional breakdowns of the armed forces continuous attitudes survey results 2023.
tabling member constituency	Midlothian
tabling member printed	Owen Thompson
uin	189613
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/06/2023 answer text <p>The latest Armed Forces Continuous Attitude Survey (AFCAS) was published on 1 June 2023. The survey has held National Statistics status since 2013, which means it meets the highest standards of trustworthiness, quality, and value.</p><p>AFCAS utilises a stratified sample by Service and rank, which helps to ensure sufficient representation. Segmenting the data by different demographic variables other than Service or rank, such as by region, would mean we could not be as confident that the results are representative of that group. It would only be possible to construct a regional breakdown by combining AFCAS data with other existing databases. There are no plans to undertake such an exercise given the inherent issues with generating unrepresentative, and therefore unreliable, results.</p> answering member constituency South West Wiltshire answering member printed Dr Andrew Murrison grouped question UIN 189674 question first answered 19/06/2023 15:22:56 answering member 1466 label Biography information for Dr Andrew Murrison
tabling member	4482 label Biography information for Owen Thompson

1644726

registered interest
date	14/06/2023
answering body	Ministry of Defence
answering dept id	11
answering dept short name	Defence
answering dept sort name	Defence
hansard heading	Armed Forces: Surveys
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether his Department holds the data in the UK Regular Armed Forces Continuous Attitude Survey at a (a) national and (b) regional level.
tabling member constituency	Midlothian
tabling member printed	Owen Thompson
uin	189674
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/06/2023 answer text <p>The latest Armed Forces Continuous Attitude Survey (AFCAS) was published on 1 June 2023. The survey has held National Statistics status since 2013, which means it meets the highest standards of trustworthiness, quality, and value.</p><p>AFCAS utilises a stratified sample by Service and rank, which helps to ensure sufficient representation. Segmenting the data by different demographic variables other than Service or rank, such as by region, would mean we could not be as confident that the results are representative of that group. It would only be possible to construct a regional breakdown by combining AFCAS data with other existing databases. There are no plans to undertake such an exercise given the inherent issues with generating unrepresentative, and therefore unreliable, results.</p> answering member constituency South West Wiltshire answering member printed Dr Andrew Murrison grouped question UIN 189613 question first answered 19/06/2023 15:22:56 answering member 1466 label Biography information for Dr Andrew Murrison
tabling member	4482 label Biography information for Owen Thompson

1625778

registered interest
date	03/05/2023
answering body	Ministry of Defence
answering dept id	11
answering dept short name	Defence
answering dept sort name	Defence
hansard heading	Armed Forces: Housing
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, when his Department last conducted an assessment of the accommodation of (a) military and (b) civilian defence personnel.
tabling member constituency	Midlothian
tabling member printed	Owen Thompson
uin	183756
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/05/2023 answer text <p>Full condition surveys of our circa 47,900 Service Family Accommodation (SFA) are carried out on a six-yearly cycle by qualified surveyors. On average, 8,000 SFA are assessed each year. Condition is assessed against the Decent Homes (DH) Standard. The DH standard is a technical standard for public housing, defined by the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.</p> answering member constituency South Suffolk answering member printed James Cartlidge question first answered 10/05/2023 14:46:47 answering member 4519 label Biography information for James Cartlidge
tabling member	4482 label Biography information for Owen Thompson

1625779

registered interest
date	03/05/2023
answering body	Ministry of Defence
answering dept id	11
answering dept short name	Defence
answering dept sort name	Defence
hansard heading	Armed Forces: Housing
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps the Government is taking to improve the condition of military accommodation; and what progress his Department has made on that work to date.
tabling member constituency	Midlothian
tabling member printed	Owen Thompson
uin	183757
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/05/2023 answer text <p>In the last seven years, the Ministry of Defence (MOD) has invested more than £936 million in Service Family Accommodation (SFA) improvements.</p><p>During financial year 2021-22, around £179 million (including £36 million of Government Fiscal Stimulus funding) was invested to improve the quality of SFA.</p><p>The 2022-23 investment of around £185 million focussed on modernising homes, tackling damp and mould, replacing kitchens and bathrooms and improving thermal efficiency to maintain/improve Decent Homes (DH) standard to an estimated 9788 SFA, which is 20% of the housing stock.</p><p>In financial year 2022-23, the MOD also invested £88 million to replace some of our poorer quality stock with 310 brand new homes. As a result of this investment, 96.75% of SFA are now assessed as meeting or exceeding DH Standard, up from 87% in 2016.</p> answering member constituency South Suffolk answering member printed James Cartlidge question first answered 10/05/2023 14:47:48 answering member 4519 label Biography information for James Cartlidge
tabling member	4482 label Biography information for Owen Thompson