The UK Armed Forces routinely participate in international defence exercises with allies and partners across the globe. In 2018 the UK is due to take part in more than 25 major international exercises and a similar number are planned for 2019. International defence exercises vary significantly in scale, complexity and the number of contributing nations, but all are focused upon developing interoperability with our allies and partners. At the cornerstone of our exercise programme are NATO, the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) Partner Nations and the Combined Joint Expeditionary Force (CJEF) alliance between the UK and France. Discrete bilateral defence activity with nations outside of these alliances also makes up part of the international programme and supports wider Defence Engagement.

Major NATO exercise activity in 2018 and 2019 centres on development of the NATO Response Force and the ability of contributing nations to respond quickly to an international crisis. Exercises will take place in the US and across Europe in Land, Maritime and Air domains. Most notably, Exercise TRIDENT JUNCTURE in November 2018 will test the ability of NATO to respond to an Article V situation in Scandinavia, involving multinational forces totalling 35,000 personnel. The UK will contribute a maritime task group, an air component and a brigade sized land force. An annual Baltic Operations Exercise focuses on the ability of NATO forces to work collectively in the protection of nations across the Baltic region. It routinely involves over 5,000 personnel from 17 nations and includes participation by up to 40 warships and submarines and over 60 aircraft.

The JEF, for which the UK is the framework nation, also exercises throughout the year to develop the ability of partner nations to respond rapidly and work together. Exercise JOINT WARRIOR is the annual major exercise which involves more than 10,000 personnel from seven partner nations, the next of which is scheduled for April 2018. In addition, the JEF Maritime component and amphibious task group also conduct an annual major exercise, which in autumn 2018 will take place in the North and Baltic Seas.

The UK and French CJEF will conduct five major exercises during 2018-19. These will include the testing and live fire exercising of a Combined Joint Task Force involving components from the maritime, land and air environments. In addition, frequent command planning exercises are scheduled to develop and enhance working practices within Combined Operational Headquarters.

In addition to the major defence international partnerships, significant bilateral exercise activity is also planned over this period. Joint training with the US makes up a significant proportion of the exercise programme and includes aircraft carrier, fighter jet and Divisional level land forces exercises. The Ministry of Defence’s largest exercise of 2018 will be Exercise SAIF SAREEA in Oman, involving more than 6,000 UK personnel, working alongside the Omani Armed Forces, and will train the UK’s high readiness forces in the full scope of defence activities. UK forces will include an Army Brigade, an RAF Air Wing with Typhoon fighter jets and support transport aircraft and a Maritime Task Group made up of a Royal Marines unit and Royal Navy amphibious warships.

The RAF's Air Surveillance and Control System at RAF Boulmer is fully integrated with NATO allies and the NATO Combined Air Operations Centre at Uedem in Germany, which manages NATO's response to such activity. This allows NATO to react in good time to aircraft approaching the airspace of both the UK and our NATO allies.

I am withholding details of the number of occasions Russian military aircraft were detected approaching UK airspace. The disclosure of this information would reveal details of the air defence of the UK which would be likely to prejudice the capability, effectiveness or security of the Armed Forces.

However, Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) aircraft from RAF Lossiemouth and RAF Coningsby launched to intercept Russian military aircraft approaching UK airspace on five days in 2016 and three days in 2017.

The National Maritime Information Centre provides the UK with a comprehensive picture of potential threats to UK maritime security and unified situational awareness of maritime activity in UK and international waters.

The Ministry of Defence contributes to Her Majesty's Government's efforts by providing multi-layered capability to deter incursions into territorial waters.

This is delivered through a combination of surface ships, submarines and aircraft, alongside close co-ordination and co-operation with other Government Agencies and our allies.

I am not prepared to disclose further details as this would, or would be likely to, prejudice the capability, effectiveness or security of the Armed Forces.

As with any vocation, personnel leave the Armed Forces for a variety of reasons. Exit interviews are conducted at a unit level but are not routinely collated centrally. As part of the leaving process, soldiers complete a short survey. Within the Royal Logistic Corps, 2016/17 survey responses indicate that the primary reasons for leaving included seeking fresh challenges, opportunities outside of the Army, personal circumstances, and job satisfaction.

The Wales Act 2017 devolves further powers to the National Assembly for Wales and the Welsh Government in areas such the environment, transport and elections. Most of these new powers will come into force on 1 April.

In addition, the UK Government is in discussions with the Welsh Government on where powers should best sit following EU exit and where common frameworks will need to be maintained. The Government expects the outcome of this work will lead to a significant increase in the decision making powers of the National Assembly for Wales.

It is not possible to provide information specific to the number of arrests for illegal immigrants because immigration offences cover a wide range of activities and the data specific to arrests for illegal immigration cannot be separated from arrests for other immigration offences. Additionally, an individual may be arrested for committing more than one offence, but as only one offence per arrest is recorded in a format that can be reported on centrally it is not possible to provide complete figures on arrests by individual offences type.

Information on arrests – either by an Immigration Enforcement or Police Officer – for committing an immigration offence is available. For the period 2011/12 to 2015/16, our records indicate that there were 119,730 arrests.

Data on the custody or detention status of those arrested cannot be provided without incurring disproportionate cost because checks of individual records would be required.

It is not possible to provide information in the format requested, because data on arrests for illegal immigration cannot be separated from arrests for other immigration offences.

The Government is committed to maintaining free admission to the permanent collections of major museums and galleries, as set out in ​the 2015 ​manifesto, and government funding to national museums is provided with this condition. ​​DCMS-sponsored museums can and do charge for temporary exhibitions and special events. Charging at other publicly owned museums is the responsibility of the organisations that operate them, for example local councils.

Passenger arrival data by nationality are published annually by the Home Office in the Immigration Statistics release. However, it is not possible to separately identify those passengers that have applied for asylum from the total number of arrivals.

An outcome analysis of annual cohorts of asylum applicants is also published annually by the Home Office. Figures on the numbers of grants, refusals, enforced removal and voluntary departure for those applying for asylum between 2010 and 2014 are provided in Table B.

A copy of the latest release, Immigration Statistics October to December 2015, is available from: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-statistics-october-to-december-2015

Table A shows the number of South Sudan nationals given leave to enter the United Kingdom, from 2011 to 2015.

Source: Table as_06 Outcome analysis of asylum applications, as at August 2015Those applying for asylum in the UK in one period may have arrived in the UK in a preceding period.

HP Humanitarian Protection

DL Discretionary Leave

The analysis of the outcomes of asylum applications are the recorded outcomes of the group (or cohort) of applicants in any one year, as at a particular time. A proportion of applications made in each of the years provided will be awaiting the outcome of an initial decision or an appeal. Applications from earlier years will inherently have had longer for the case to be processed than those from more recent years. This dataset is updated, in full, annually.

There are a large variety of routes that an asylum application can take to a final asylum outcome. As a consequence, analysis of the outcomes of asylum applications in any one year requires interpretation for a small percentage of cases. This interpretation is undertaken consistently by established computer code. The proportions and underlying figures for final outcomes of the analysis of applications for the group (or cohort) of applicants in any one year, are therefore estimated.

A copy of the latest release, Immigration Statistics October to December 2015, is available from: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-statistics-october-to-december-2015

The Government does not plan to introduce any new powers in primary legislation to specifically give local authorities the ability to alter the status of restricted byways or any other type of public right of way.

The legal framework governing public rights of way has been reviewed by a stakeholder working group, which recommended a package of reforms which are now being implemented through provisions included in the Deregulation Act 2015.

The Government’s spending on Legal Aid in cash and real terms in each of the last 10 years is listed as follows:

*Since 2013/14 the LAA has produced one set of accounts incorporating both legal aid fund and administration costs. Prior to that separate accounts were produced for the fund and administration.

*The LAA took over responsibility for Central Funds in 2013/14 and before that it was included within the accounts of the Ministry of Justice, the time series above includes cash from both periods.

I refer the noble Lord to the written ministerial statement made on the 26 April 2012 by the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills on this matter.

EU sanctions imposed on Russia have been designed to maximise the impact on Russia whilst minimising the impact on the UK and EU. We accept that there will be a cost to our economies both from EU sanctions and Russian retaliatory measures, and have been clear that it should be shared equally across the EU, but there is a much greater cost involved in failing to stand up to Russia’s destabilising and illegal aggression.

The UK supports and fully participates in the EU sanctions imposed on Russia for its actions in destabilising eastern Ukraine and illegally annexing Crimea. These measures include listing individuals and entities for travel bans and asset freezes, as well as economic measures such as an arms embargo, capital market restrictions for certain Russian state-owned companies, restrictions on exporting energy technology to Russia and specific bans on investment, tourism services, importing and exporting goods to and from Crimea. A full list of EU sanctions measures can be found on the EU website at: http://europa.eu/newsroom/highlights/special-coverage/eu_sanctions/index_en.htm. A copy of the current EU sanctions is attached.

We have granted two licences for export to Sweden of components for Gripen where Brazil was identified as one of the ultimate end-users.

Based on past export performance, the sanctions imposed by Russia on the United Kingdom affected an estimated 0.2 per cent of the UK’s total food, feed and drink exports which include £5.8 million worth of exports from our domestic cheese industry.

However, globally, our dairy exports are at record levels, topping £1.4 billion last year, a 51 per cent increase since 2009.

For the vast majority of requested years, the information required to verify expenditure on the Combined Cadet Force (CCF) is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

However, extensive work was carried out for the Defence Youth Engagement Review (published in 2011) which confirmed that spending on the CCF in Financial Year (FY) 2009-10 was £26 million. Further analysis, undertaken as part of our recent work on CCF funding, confirmed that spending in FY 2012-13 was £27.7 million.

The Foreign Enlistment Act 1870 remains in force and there are no current plans to amend it.

The UK has a range of terrorism and criminal law offences to tackle British citizens who travel overseas to participate in armed conflict abroad. Where there is evidence that these individuals are engaging in activities there which may harm the UK, we can already seek prosecution on their return to the UK.

The Prime Minister recently announced a package of wide-ranging measures which will further strengthen our capability to deal with the increased threat from foreign fighters and British-born jihadists who seek to harm the UK. In addition, the Government is already legislating in the Serious Crime Bill to extend our territorial jurisdiction over two offences in the Terrorism Act 2006 which will enable the prosecution of those who travel overseas to prepare and train for terrorism.

480 Service personnel were tried by Court Martial during the year 2013.
None of those were judged by their Commanding Officers. 70 chose to represent themselves at trial.

A significant set of EU, UN and US sanctions have been imposed on Iran because of its nuclear programme. UK exports to Iran fell to £79 million in 2013, down from £100 million in 2012, and £180 million in 2011. EU exports to Iran have also fallen, totalling €5.4 billion in 2013. This is down from €7.4 billion in 2012, and €10.5 billion in 2011.