News and Events

New All-Party Parliamentary Group on Explosive Threats and Their Impact

On the 12 November 2024, at a meeting in the House of Lords the new All-Party Parliamentary Group on Explosive Threats & Their Impact was born.

Chaired by the Lib Dem MP for Epsom & Ewell Helen Maguire – herself a former army Captain, MPs and Peers met with members of the EOD community from across the military, commercial and voluntary sector, plus a few academics and two victims of the Manchester Arena bombings.

Stars of the show were the Metropolitan Police EOD team – the real ‘Trigger Point’ - who brought in their fully equipped response vehicle.

We were also delighted to welcome two government Ministers to the meeting: Veterans Minister Alistair Carns and Security Minister Dan Jarvis.



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Westminster Hall Debate

Following this event Helen Maguire led a Westminster Hall debate on the 11th December entitled ‘Government Support for the Explosive Ordnance Community’ with Veterans Minister Alistair Carns responding.

On the 13th January 2025 the APPG held its inaugural meeting at which Helen was voted in as Chair and our officers chosen.




 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Launch

The 24th of February was a poignant day to launch the new All-Party Parliamentary Group on Explosive Weapons and Their Impact.

 

Hosted by our chair Helen Maguire MP and vice chair Baroness Foster of Oxton, the event had standing room only with parliamentarians, military EOD specialists, commercial members of the Counter Explosive Ordnance UK Group, and the REVIVE Campaign and Apopo UK representing the NGO sector.

 

The subject of Ukraine was on everyone’s lips as the day was the third anniversary of Putin’s invasion of the country. Ukraine will no doubt become the main focus of the inquiry that Helen announced into the Capability of UK Plc to provide equipment and training in the EOD arena.

 

We are immensely grateful to Safelane Global for their financial support and to Chris Clark as our guest speaker for the evening. Both Chris’s and Helen’s speeches are attached here.

 

The next scheduled event will be on the 2nd June in the Terrace Pavilion of the House of Commons – to get involved, please contact us via ellwaynb@parliament.uk.

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Undoubtedly, there will be other smaller meetings in the interim.

 

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