House of Commons and House of Lords Hansard Written Answers
Asked by Brendan O’Hara
(Argyll and Bute)
Asked on: 17 July 2015
Syria: Armed Conflict
7841
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether he was informed of the deployment of British military personnel in military action in Syria prior to the debate on Britain and International Security on 2 July 2015.
Answered by: Michael Fallon
Answered on: 27 July 2015
Yes. My predecessor and I authorised a small number of UK personnel embedded with US and Canadian forces to deploy with their units on operations in Iraq and Syria.
Military Aircraft
HL1803
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what progress the Ministry of Defence has made in examining the requirement for a maritime patrol aircraft; and if such an asset is procured, in which Command responsibility for operation would be vested.
Answered by: Earl Howe
Answered on: 27 July 2015
Consideration of the requirement for a maritime patrol aircraft is ongoing, and we continue to assemble evidence and perform analytical studies. A decision on whether or not to acquire an aircraft has yet to be taken.
Asked by Lord Robertson of Port Ellen
Asked on: 14 July 2015
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
NATO
HL1454
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the impact of zero nominal growth in NATO’s civil budget on the additional tasks given to NATO at the Wales Summit.
Answered by: Baroness Anelay of St Johns
Answered on: 24 July 2015
The British Government places the highest priority on the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) delivering the commitments made at the Wales Summit, which will strengthen the Alliance to ensure it is able to respond to the full range of new and emerging threats. Good progress has been made in 2015 towards delivering the Wales package with Zero Nominal Growth civil budgets in place. For example NATO has reprioritised resources towards Cyber Defence, enabling its funding to rise by 116 per cent within existing resources. The NATO Civil Budget for 2016 remains under discussion, but we are pressing NATO to continue to prioritise resources as necessary towards delivering the Wales agenda. We support the Secretary General’s drive for adaptation of the organisation, which we hope will promote greater prioritisation and smarter use of resources, allowing NATO to respond quickly to evolving security challenges.
Asked by Dr Julian Lewis
(New Forest East)
[N]
Asked on: 14 July 2015
Ministry of Defence
Defence: Finance
7041
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether he plans to achieve the target of two per cent of GDP allocated to defence without including items hitherto borne (a) by the Secret Vote and (b) on other budgets of other Government departments; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by: Michael Fallon
Answered on: 21 July 2015
As confirmed in the summer budget, the Government is committed to meeting the properly measured NATO pledge to spend 2% of national income on defence every year of this decade. This will include public spending that supports the Ministry of Defence and the contribution made by the secret intelligence agencies.
The UK’s returns to NATO have historically included spending from other Government departments, and NATO asks allies to include all spending that contributes to delivering defence.
Asked by Lord West of Spithead
Asked on: 14 July 2015
Ministry of Defence
Ministry of Defence: Public Expenditure
HL1413
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the recent budget, how much extra money will be available to the Ministry of Defence in 2015–16, 2016–17, 2017–18 and 2018–19.
Answered by: Earl Howe
Answered on: 21 July 2015
The Summer Budget does not affect the Ministry of Defence’s 2015-16 budget, which has been laid before Parliament.
The Ministry of Defence budget for 2016-17 and beyond will be determined in the Spending Review. The Chancellor confirmed in the Summer Budget