Written question asked by Lord Beamish (Labour) on Tuesday, 17 January 2017, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Friday, 20 January 2017 (named day). It was answered by Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton (Conservative) on Friday, 20 January 2017 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.
Armed Forces: Languages
- Question
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To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many personnel in the (a) Army, (b) RAF and (c) Royal Navy are trained at proficiency level (i) 1, (ii) 2, (iii) 3, (iv) 4 and (v) 5 in (A) Mandarin Chinese, (B) Japanese and (C) Korean.
- Answer
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There are approximately 145 personnel across all three services that are trained in Mandarin Chinese, Japanese or Korean. It is not possible to provide a detailed breakdown for these languages because of the strategic and operational sensitivities surrounding them.
The Ministry of Defence's (MOD) language requirements for intelligence or other purposes are met from a Departmental pool of Armed Forces and civilian personnel (and from contractors when needed). Cultural and language skills are a key operational enabler; therefore the Department reviews its future requirements for linguists regularly and trains its personnel accordingly.
Secondary information
- Type
- Written question
- Reference
- 60325
- Session
- 2016-17
- Subjects
- Armed forces Japanese language Mandarin language Korean language
- Contains statistics
- Yes
- Link
- View this Written question on www.parliament.uk
Librarians' tools
- Timestamp
- 2017-02-16 21:13:17 +0000
- URI
- http://data.parliament.uk/writtenparliamentaryquestion/commons/2016-17/60325
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