Speeches by Baker.

“Q3. My constituent Annemarie, like countless other armed forces families across Aldershot and Farnborough, is living in shabby military accommodation which, after 14 years of Conservative neglect, is simply not good enough. I therefore welcome the Ministry of Defence plan to buy back thousands of homes in my constituen…”

“We had Lord Robertson in front of us two weeks ago and he told us, “We are pretty rigorous in costing all of what we are doing.” It is clear to us that these figures exist. For us, it is just about the pathway to us being able to have visibility and to understand the numbers that you are working with.”

“Picking up on the words my colleague, Fred Thomas, has just shared with you from the Chief of Defence Staff—in particular, “There is still too much hierarchy and process”—I wondered if you have any thoughts about the large numbers of senior civil servant-grade civilians and star-ranked military officers. Is the Departm…”

“I note your comments around the equipment plan and it is great to hear that we are going to have an equipment plan moving forward, but we do know that you are managing a budget of £300 billion of taxpayers’ money going towards defence procurement and support. Could you give the Committee the topline info for the next 1…”

“My constituents still mourn the loss of our M&S outlet in 2015, but we are delighted that Superbowl UK has just opened in Aldershot. These anchor retail and leisure tenants are so vital for our town centres, so what can the Government do to assist communities such as mine to ensure that we can encourage businesses …”

“2. What steps his Department is taking to help increase the number of businesses exporting goods and services.”

“Last week, I visited the Ferns primary academy, which I am pleased to say has had its termination warning removed because of its significantly improved Ofsted judgment. It is clear to me that, as stated by Ofsted, the school is determined “that all pupils, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilit…”

“Exports from our aerospace, defence, security and space sectors contribute around £40 billion to our economy, but without additional support, many of the small businesses I speak to in Aldershot and Farnborough are limited in their ability to export. What can Ministers do to help them, and will the Government consider …”

“T1. If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.”

“This is an important day for a whole generation of ex-service personnel in my constituency and across the UK who lost everything they knew because of a policy that was discriminatory and wrong. I pay tribute to the charity Fighting With Pride and the coalition that has led this campaign with the dignity of ex-service p…”

“Everything you have said to this point speaks to the fact that we are dealing with countless levels of uncertainty. The strategic defence review is the big opportunity to put ourselves in the best possible place. How do we deal with the levels of uncertainty about the future direction of the conflict and relate that to…”

“To come back to this piece around defence reform, I am really interested in those processes running in parallel, but that must be a massive challenge. Until you have the reforms, it is very hard to make decisions in an SDR. Could you talk about how you think that process should be working?”

“T7. Two weeks ago I visited Currys in Farnborough Gate after its staff suffered yet another horrifying steaming attack. A gang of six men stormed into the store, destroyed and stole products and terrified customers. How will the sentencing review contribute towards cracking down on this appalling behaviour trend?”

“You have talked there about the sorts of tactics that Russia could use, but we are really interested in the bit that you have just touched on about how you deter these threats and build resilience. Could you speak a little bit more about that?”

“T6. We owe a great debt of gratitude to our exceptional public servants who have given their lives to serve our nation. Can the Minister update the House on what progress has been made in establishing the Elizabeth Emblem to commemorate former firefighters, police officers and other public servants who have died in pub…”

“Once you have the recommendations for the SDR, if there is a substantial change in that, will the Government commit to changing, for example, the defence industrial strategy or the DBT’s industrial strategy to fit in line with that?”

“Do you think I will be able to go back to the companies in my constituency and say to them that there is a commitment to have a clear strategy, so that they will be really clear how they can operate, do business and meet our defence needs?”

“Will it be your recommendation that the Government need to make those changes?”

“You will know my constituency, where we have a strong defence industrial base. From speaking to the companies that are there, they are seeing that, alongside the SDR, we have the DBT’s industrial strategy, where defence is listed. We then have the defence industrial strategy. Their feedback is that there are a lot of s…”

“Every new Government loves a review and it would appear that this Government is no exception. At the moment we have the AUKUS review going on, the resilience review, the China audit, the global impact review and the economic diplomacy review, to name just a few. How do your team go about engaging with all these other o…”