UK Government support for the explosive ordnance disposal community

The explosive ordnance disposal community

UK armed forces

The UK armed forces provide an explosive ordnance disposal capability in the UK and worldwide. This is provided by the army’s Royal Engineers’ explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) and search operators and the Royal Navy’s maritime improvised explosive device disposal (this includes clearance divers).

The process for assistance in the UK is known as military aid to the civil authorities, from agencies such as police forces or the maritime and coastguard agency. More information on this process can be found in chapter 4 of UK operations: the defence contribution to resilience (JSP 02).

In May 2024 the Ministry of Defence signed a contract for new bomb disposal robots for the army. The £21 million contract with L3 Harris Technologies will provide 50 T4 units, with the first being delivered by the end of 2024. The robots are designed to operate in narrow urban spaces to support and reduce the risk to service personnel.

Six new boats to support Royal Navy divers were delivered in early 2023.

In July 2022 a new monument to the Royal Navy’s mine warfare community was dedicated, in Portsmouth.

UK global mine action programme

In 2014 the government set up the global mine action programme, which it describes as the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office’s (FCDO) “main vehicle” for tackling the threat posed by landmines, cluster munitions, and other explosive remnants of war (ERW). It had a budget of £14.8 million in financial year 2023/24.

Charities and organisations

In February 2024, the FCDO (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) provided £17 million in new funding through GMAP for two of the UK’s leading organisations that help clear explosives and mines: The Mines Advisory Group (MAG) and the HALO Trust (HALO). The funding is for operations in eight countries in Africa and Asia. A Conservative government minister, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, paid tribute to both organisations in a debate on landmine awareness in April 2023.

The International Campaign to Ban Landmines – Cluster Munition Coalition (ICBL-CMC) describes itself as a “global network of civil society organizations working towards the elimination of these indiscriminate weapons”.

All party parliamentary group on explosive weapons

During the previous parliament, an informal cross-party group of MPs formed an APPG, an all party parliamentary group, on explosive weapons. It was chaired by Matthew Offord (Con) and its secretariat was managed by the Revive campaign. The APPG published a report on the psychological impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

International conventions on explosive ordnance

• The Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, also known as the mine ban treaty, or the Ottawa Convention, or to give its full name, the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction, opened for signature in 1997. Since then, 164 countries, including the UK, have ratified or acceded to it. 33 States have not formally agreed to be bound by the Convention, Six of these countries – China, India, the Republic of Korea, Pakistan, Russia and the United States – may hold tens of millions of stockpiled antipersonnel lines.
• The Convention on Cluster Munitions, which entered into force in 2010. It prohibits the use, production, transfer and stockpiling of cluster munitions. There are 112 States Parties, including the UK.
• The Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW), which entered into force in 1983. The purpose of the convention is to ban or restrict the use of specific types of weapons that are considered to cause unnecessary or unjustifiable suffering to combatants or to affect civilians indiscriminately. It has 127 High Contracting Parties, including the UK, and 4 signatories.

On 3 December 2024, Mines Advisory Group (MAG) marked the anniversaries of the anti-personnel mine ban convention and the convention on cluster munitions opening for signature. MAG described both as having been “pivotal in reducing the humanitarian harm posed by anti-personnel landmines and cluster munitions”.

UN action on explosive ordnance

The UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS), established in 1997, works to “eliminate the threat posed by mines, explosive remnants of war and improvised explosive devices”.

In 2005 the UN General Assembly declared 4 April each year to be the International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action. In 2024, UNMAS highlighted the five-year anniversary of UN Security Council resolution 2475 which, UNMAS says, calls upon Member States and Security Council members to protect persons with disabilities, ensure they have access to assistance and are included in conflict prevention and peacebuilding.

The UN Secretary General produces reports on assistance in mine action every two years. The most recent report was published on 31 July 2023 and covers the period August 2021 to July 2023. The report said that explosive ordnance caused over 9,000 casualties, or more than one every hour, in 2022, saying:

explosive ordnance contamination has continued to endanger the lives of civilians by killing and maiming indiscriminately; obstruct the safe movement of civilians, access to services and delivery of humanitarian assistance; affect land cultivation and local resilience; and hamper the rehabilitation of public infrastructure.

Impact of explosive ordnance

The International Campaign to Ban Landmines – Cluster Munition Coalition (ICBL-CMC) tracks progress in eliminating landmines and cluster munitions. According to their landmines monitor report, published on 20 November 2024:

• At least 5,575 people were killed and wounded by landmines and explosive remnants of war worldwide in 2023. 84% of recorded casualties, where the status was known, were civilians, and children accounted for more than a third of all civilian casualties.
• The highest number of annual casualties (1,003) was in Myanmar.
• At least 58 countries and areas are still impacted by landmine contamination.
• Total land cleared in 2023 was 281.5km², equivalent to an area larger than the UK, and the largest area cleared since 2019. Cambodia and Croatia “led the way”, accounting for 75% of the total land cleared in 2023.

According to ICBL-CMC’s cluster munition monitor, published on 9 September 2023:

• Cluster munitions were used in Ukraine by both Russian and Ukraine forces in 2023.
• Ukraine recorded the highest number of annual cluster munition casualties in the world “for the second consecutive year”, killing and injuring over a thousand people since February 2022, although the actual number of casualties is thought to be significantly higher.
• Civilians accounted for 93% of the global casualties from cluster munitions in 2023, where the status was recorded. Children made up nearly half of all people killed and injured by cluster munition remnants in 2023.
• States Parties have collectively destroyed 100% of their declared cluster munition stocks; Peru was the last State Party to complete this obligation under the convention in December 2023.
• In July 2024, Lithuania enacted a law approving its withdrawal from the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

The Action on Armed Violence (AOAV) organisation monitors the harm caused by explosive weapons. In a report published on 19 April 2024, AOAV recorded 47,476 deaths and injuries by explosive weapons in 2023:

• 73% of the recorded casualties were civilians, the most injurious year for civilians since AOAV began recording in 2010.
• Gaza accounted for 39% of global civilian casualties in 2023.
• 96% of global reported civilian deaths and injuries occurred in populated areas.
• Manufactured explosive weapons accounted for 91% of civilian casualties in 2023, while improvised explosive devices accounted for 8%.
• Air-launched manufactured explosive weapons were responsible for 50% of global civilian casualties, while ground-launched explosive weapons accounted for 34%.

Use of landmines in Ukraine

The International Campaign to Ban Landmines has condemned the decision by the United States to transfer antipersonnel mines to Ukraine. The campaign group described the move as a “stunning reversal of its (the US’) longstanding policy and practice”. The Action on Armed Violence (AOAV) also condemned the Biden administration’s decision, saying it “not only violates long-standing international norms but risks exacerbating the devastating humanitarian impact of landmines”.

The US is not a State Party to the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction. In June 2022, the Biden Administration announced it would “align its policy concerning use” of anti-personnel landmines, outside of the Korean peninsula, with the Convention. Further information on this decision can be found in Congressional Research Service report US anti-personnel landmine use policy (PDF).

Human rights Watch has tracked the use of landmines in Ukraine by both parties to the conflict. In March 2022, the Conservative government said that, as the President of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, it was “gravely concerned” by reports of the use of cluster munitions in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The government called upon “all those that continue to use such weapons to cease immediately, and calls upon all states that have not yet done so to join the Convention without delay”.