James Cartlidge MP: written questions
4 Jul 2024–3 Jul 2025
How these years work
Our reporting years run from 4 July to 3 July, starting with the 2024 general election. They are not official parliamentary sessions. Office costs keep IPSA’s April–March financial years. Records may cover only part of a year; a missing record does not mean no work was done.
Read what this MP said, asked and contributed in Parliament.
1762 published records · newest first.
Written questions
Diego Garcia: Military BasesMinistry of DefenceTabled 10 Jan 2025AnsweredUIN 23156More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many meetings he has held with the incoming US administration on the terms of the Diego Garcia military base as part of the Chagos settlement.
Answer: The Defence Secretary is regularly in touch with the US on a range of matters including the British Indian Ocean Territory/Chagos Archipelago. We look forward to discussing these matters with the incoming Administration in the usual way.
Answered 15 Jan 2025
Original Parliament recordChagos Islands: SovereigntyMinistry of DefenceTabled 10 Jan 2025AnsweredUIN 23155More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what proportion of the UK’s contribution to the cost of Chagos settlement will be funded from his Department’s budget.
Answer: As a former Defence Minister, the hon. Member will be familiar with the spending processes in the Ministry of Defence. Spending decisions will be taken in the usual way in due course.
Answered 15 Jan 2025
Original Parliament recordDefence EquipmentMinistry of DefenceTabled 9 Jan 2025AnsweredUIN 22969More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, for what reason have the annual armed forces equipment statistics not been published.
Answer: The UK Armed Forces Equipment and Formations 2024 publication has been delayed due to a data quality review and has a provisional release date of February 2025. This is stated in the Statistics release calendar: UK armed forces equipment and formations 20...
Answered 14 Jan 2025
Original Parliament recordDefence EquipmentMinistry of DefenceTabled 9 Jan 2025AnsweredUIN 22968More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what his planned timetable is for publishing his Department's annual statistics on armed forces equipment.
Answer: The UK Armed Forces Equipment and Formations 2024 publication has been delayed due to a data quality review and has a provisional release date of February 2025. This is stated in the Statistics release calendar: UK armed forces equipment and formations 20...
Answered 14 Jan 2025
Original Parliament recordArmed Forces: Health and SafetyMinistry of DefenceTabled 9 Jan 2025AnsweredUIN 22967More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the MySafety (DURALS) system in recording incidents involving defence personnel.
Answer: MySafety is the new pan-Defence safety occurrence reporting system which is being rolled out across Defence. Once complete, the introduction of MySafety will provide a standardised, more accessible, single safety occurrence reporting platform to Defence p...
Answered 16 Jan 2025
Original Parliament recordArmed Forces and Civilians: InjuriesMinistry of DefenceTabled 9 Jan 2025AnsweredUIN 22966More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to avoid underreporting of incidents relating to injuries of civilian and military personnel.
Answer: The Ministry of Defence is committed to the health and safety of our people. We recognise the importance of reporting all safety occurrences. We have specific safety occurrence reporting policy. This mandates the reporting of all safety occurrences relati...
Answered 16 Jan 2025
Original Parliament recordArmed Forces: TrainingMinistry of DefenceTabled 9 Jan 2025AnsweredUIN 22965More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to help protect untrained military personnel from injury during training exercises.
Answer: The Ministry of Defence is committed to the health and safety of our people and we have robust policies and processes in place to safely manage our training activities. Defence activity can be inherently hazardous. This risk to our people is rendered as l...
Answered 16 Jan 2025
Original Parliament recordArmed Forces: TrainingMinistry of DefenceTabled 9 Jan 2025AnsweredUIN 22964More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to help mitigate injury rates among armed forces personnel during training exercises.
Answer: The Ministry of Defence is committed to the health and safety of our people and we have robust policies and processes in place to safely manage our training activities. Defence activity can be inherently hazardous. This risk to our people is rendered as l...
Answered 16 Jan 2025
Original Parliament recordDiego Garcia: Military BasesMinistry of DefenceTabled 9 Jan 2025AnsweredUIN 22963More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what discussion he has had with representatives of the United States administration on the cost to US armed forces of the leaseback of the Diego Garcia military base as part of the Chagos settlement.
Answer: The Defence Secretary is in regular contact with Secretary Austin on a range of issues, including the British Indian Ocean Territory / Chagos Archipelago. The Diego Garcia military base is a joint UK-US facility and is an essential part of the UK-US defen...
Answered 14 Jan 2025
Original Parliament recordDiego Garcia: Military BasesMinistry of DefenceTabled 9 Jan 2025AnsweredUIN 22962More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what proportion of the cost of leasing the Diego Garcia military base will be covered by the United States.
Answer: The Diego Garcia military base is a joint UK-US facility and is an essential part of the UK-US defence relationship. It is not normal practice for the UK to reveal the value of its payments for military bases anywhere across the globe.
Answered 14 Jan 2025
Original Parliament recordDefence: ExpenditureTreasuryTabled 9 Jan 2025AnsweredUIN 22961More
Question: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of recent trends in borrowing costs on the Government's capacity to increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP expenditure.
Answer: This government is fully committed to economic stability and sound public finances. That is why the Chancellor has made clear that meeting the fiscal rules is non-negotiable. Economic stability is one of the foundations that underpins the Prime Minister's...
Answered 14 Jan 2025
Original Parliament recordFarmers: IncomeDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 9 Jan 2025AnsweredUIN 22960More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when he has met representatives of farming businesses in South Suffolk constituency to discuss recent trends in farm incomes.
Answer: Ministers and officials regularly meet with a range of farming stakeholders, including the National Farmers Union, the Country Land and Business Association, and the Tenant Farmers Association. We will continue to meet with stakeholders to ensure their vi...
Answered 15 Jan 2025
Original Parliament recordAgriculture: WeatherDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 9 Jan 2025AnsweredUIN 22959More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to support farm businesses to adapt to adverse weather conditions.
Answer: The Government inherited flood assets in their worst condition on record following years of underinvestment by the previous Government – only 92% of the Environment Agency’s 38,000 high consequence assets are currently at required condition. To ensure we ...
Answered 17 Jan 2025
Original Parliament recordArable Farming: WeatherDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 9 Jan 2025AnsweredUIN 22958More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to help mitigate the impact of (a) increased rainfall and (b) storms on arable farm output.
Answer: The Government inherited flood assets in their worst condition on record following years of underinvestment by the previous Government – only 92% of the Environment Agency’s 38,000 high consequence assets are currently at required condition. To ensure we ...
Answered 17 Jan 2025
Original Parliament recordArable Farming: South SuffolkDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 9 Jan 2025AnsweredUIN 22957More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of adverse weather conditions on arable farm output in South Suffolk constituency in each of the last three years.
Answer: There are multiple factors that influence arable production, for example farmers will make business decisions in response to market signals such as input and output prices, so we are unable to attribute what degree of change between years is solely as a r...
Answered 20 Jan 2025
Original Parliament recordFarmers: South SuffolkDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 9 Jan 2025AnsweredUIN 22956More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of recent trends in the level of farm incomes in South Suffolk constituency.
Answer: The Government has committed to support farmers through a farming budget of £5 billion over two years, including £2.4 billion in 2025/26. We publish regular accredited official statistics on farm income in England and other data related to farm businesses...
Answered 20 Jan 2025
Original Parliament recordMilitary Aircraft: ProcurementMinistry of DefenceTabled 9 Jan 2025AnsweredUIN 22955More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what plans his Department has for procuring a replacement for the Hawk T2.
Answer: Ministers regularly discuss the future capability requirements of the Royal Air Force with the Chief of the Air Staff. I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Huntingdon on 3 December 2024 to Question 15292.
Answered 13 Jan 2025
Original Parliament recordOfficial Secrets: Disclosure of InformationMinistry of DefenceTabled 9 Jan 2025AnsweredUIN 22954More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what information his Department holds on the number of occasions classified military secrets have been leaked on the online war simulation entitled War Thunder.
Answer: It has been the long-standing policy of the current and previous Governments that we do not comment on operational security matters. The Ministry of Defence takes the security of our assets extremely seriously and we have robust measures in place to assur...
Answered 16 Jan 2025
Original Parliament recordOfficial Secrets: Disclosure of InformationMinistry of DefenceTabled 9 Jan 2025AnsweredUIN 22953More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking to help prevent the leaking of military secrets during online war games.
Answer: Unauthorised release of information endangers our national security and makes protecting the United Kingdom harder. As such it is contrary to the ethos and policies of the Ministry of Defence, and we take the unauthorised release of information very serio...
Answered 17 Jan 2025
Original Parliament recordHMS Albion and HMS BulwarkMinistry of DefenceTabled 9 Jan 2025AnsweredUIN 22952More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether the Defence Recycling and Disposals Team have commenced commercial negotiations with potential buyers for (a) HMS Bulwark and (b) HMS Albion.
Answer: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 13 January 2025 to question 22653.
Answered 16 Jan 2025
Original Parliament recordHMS Albion and HMS BulwarkMinistry of DefenceTabled 9 Jan 2025AnsweredUIN 22951More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the oral contribution by the Minister for Defence Procurement and Industry of 6 January 2025, Official Report, column 586, what the disposal plan is for (a) HMS Albion and (b) HMS Bulwark.
Answer: HMS Albion and HMS Bulwark are currently laid up awaiting disposal. Both ships require costly and time-consuming refits, and as such, were not considered a cost-effective use of taxpayers' money. The Royal Navy is exploring options to sell both HMS Albion...
Answered 14 Jan 2025
Original Parliament recordDefence: Vocational GuidanceMinistry of DefenceTabled 9 Jan 2025AnsweredUIN 22950More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether he has had recent discussions with the Secretary of State for Education on the potential impact of protest-related activity on university campuses on the ability of defence companies to participate in car
Answer: This Government recognises the critical importance of attracting new entrants into the defence sector, in order to ensure we have the skilled workforce needed to sustain a vibrant, innovation and competitive UK defence industrial base. The Ministry of Def...
Answered 14 Jan 2025
Original Parliament recordDefence: Vocational GuidanceMinistry of DefenceTabled 8 Jan 2025AnsweredUIN 22655More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether he plans to allow UK defence companies to participate in (a) careers fairs and (b) related events on university campuses.
Answer: The Ministry of Defence works closely with UK defence companies to highlight the significant benefits of a career in the defence sector. We recognise that attracting and retaining the right mix of skills is critical to sustaining a vibrant, innovative and...
Answered 13 Jan 2025
Original Parliament recordMilitary Aircraft: ProcurementMinistry of DefenceTabled 8 Jan 2025AnsweredUIN 22654More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether he has had discussions with the Chief of the Air Staff on procuring a replacement for the Hawk T2.
Answer: Ministers regularly discuss the future capability requirements of the Royal Air Force with the Chief of the Air Staff. I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Huntingdon on 3 December 2024 to Question 15292.
Answered 13 Jan 2025
Original Parliament recordHMS Albion and HMS BulwarkMinistry of DefenceTabled 8 Jan 2025AnsweredUIN 22653More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether his Department has received enquiries from international partners on the potential sale of (a) HMS Bulwark and (b) HMS Albion.
Answer: The Royal Navy is exploring options to sell both HMS Albion and HMS Bulwark in a government-to-government sale. These vessels had, in effect, been retired by the previous Government. Their sale will save £9 million a year in maintenance costs in addition ...
Answered 13 Jan 2025
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