Westminster Hall debates on Committee Reports

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• Inquiry: Shifting the Goalposts? Defence Expenditure and the 2% pledge
• Inquiry: Lariam
• Defence Committee

Debates

Thursday 27 October, Westminster Hall

At 1.30pm

• Second Report from the Defence Committee of Session 2015–16, Shifting the goalposts? Defence expenditure and the 2% pledge, HC 494 (2015–16), and the Government response, HC 465

At around 3.00pm

• Fourth Report from the Defence Committee of Session 2015–16, An acceptable risk? The use of Lariam for military personnel, HC 567 (2015–16), and the Government response, HC 648

Shifting the goalposts? Defence expenditure and the 2% pledge

The Second Report of 2015–16 noted that although the Government has achieved its 2% commitment to defence spending in the last year, this was done through what appears to be creative (albeit permissible) accounting.

The Committee welcomes the Government's commitment not to fall below the NATO recommendation to spend a minimum of 2% of GDP on defence each year for the rest of the current Parliament.

This sends an important message to UK partners and potential adversaries, but the areas of expenditure that have been included in the definitive Defence Budget, both now and in the past, is unclear.

An acceptable risk? The use of Lariam for military personnel

In the Committee's Fourth Report of Session 2015–16 on the use of Lariam in the Armed Forces, the Committee stated that Lariam, the anti-malarial drug sometimes prescribed to British troops, should be considered only as a drug of last resort.

Lariam (also known as mefloquine) has a high-risk profile and a minority of users experience severe side-effects.

These side-effects are clearly highlighted by Roche, the manufacturer of Lariam, who rightly lay down stringent conditions which must be met if it is to be prescribed safely. However there is very strong anecdotal evidence that such conditions have often been disregarded in dispensing it to large numbers of troops about to be deployed.

Reports and responses

Shifting the Goalposts? Defence expenditure and the 2% pledge

• Report: Shifting the Goalposts? Defence expenditure and the 2% pledge
• Report: Shifting the Goalposts? Defence expenditure and the 2% pledge (PDF 732KB)

Government response

• Special Report: Shifting the goalposts? Defence expenditure and the 2% pledge: Government Response to the Committee's Second Report of Session 2015–16
• Special Report: Shifting the goalposts? Defence expenditure and the 2% pledge: Government Response to the Committee's Second Report of Session 2015–16 (PDF 232KB)

An acceptable risk? The use of Lariam by military personnel

• Report: An acceptable risk? The use of Lariam by military personnel
• Report: An acceptable risk? The use of Lariam by military personnel (PDF 729 KB)

Government response

• Special Report: An acceptable risk? The use of Lariam for military personnel: Government Response to the Committee's Fourth Report Session 2015–16
• Special Report: An acceptable risk? The use of Lariam for military personnel: Government Response to the Committee's Fourth Report Session 2015–16 (PDF 176KB)

Further information

• About Parliament: Select committees
• About Parliament: Westminster Hall debates
• Visiting Parliament: Watch committees

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