Speeches by Baker.

“I come from the private sector. I am just getting to know how the MoD works, in a way that I did not before. In the private sector, when a business commits to a process of change, generally in my experience the business brings in people who specialise in transformation and change, and specifically finance. You have a t…”

“I welcome the Government’s commitment to providing security guarantees for Ukraine, which are vital to the defence of Europe and to upholding peace on our continent. However, military resolve alone is not enough; deterrence requires financial guarantees that underpin our security commitments today and in the years ahea…”

“Where are you on how we fight against just feeding the inflation monkey? That is the big issue, isn’t it? If we just continue with the capacity that we have as is, all we are going to do is make things more expensive. How do we fight against that?”

“When it comes to a pinch point, though, if we are all just buying from the same people, isn’t that going to be an issue?”

“That is really encouraging. It is refreshing to have somebody with your experience in that world come into the world of defence and, hopefully, be able to take us forward. I have been campaigning for a multilateral defence, security and resilience bank. The Defence Secretary has talked about the need for a World Bank f…”

“We have gained all this knowledge, General Reilly, supporting personnel, including women, on the frontline. The Atherton report from this Committee highlighted real shortcomings in uniform and equipment for our serving women on the frontline. I would like to give you an opportunity to tell us where we have got to: do o…”

“So your aim would be to get that rolled out as quickly as possible, if the—”

“I just want to say thank you for your leadership on this. You have clearly really moved the dial, and that is an amazing thing for our women.”

“We have seen rates of ammunition and complex weapon expenditure in Ukraine. I am interested in how long the UK could sustain a fight on a comparable tempo, based on our stockpiles as they are now.”

“Presumably you are thinking about what you have on day one, versus how you would then ramp up supply.”

“The Ukraine war has shown us that modern conflict is as much a test of factory capacity and balance sheets as it is of the actual platforms. Rupert, with your VC background, what changes do you think we need in the way the world of UK defence finance works to be able to invest at scale to increase capacity rather than …”

“Our assessment is that this comms plan is not where it needs to be at the moment. It is very difficult to get any sense of constituencies, as you have said, beyond key constituencies that have been mentioned. My own constituency will be playing its part in AUKUS, yet I have no clue how. That is fundamentally not good e…”

“Your assessment is that your comms plan is not where it needs to be.”

“Can I first put on record my congratulations to the Minister for his announcement yesterday lifting the ban on the remaining roles of people who can serve in our armed forces? His leadership has been extraordinary on this. I was delighted to see his work with THT and I know that other members of this Committee have sup…”

“I am interested in MHCLG’s lead in this. You usually think about the Cabinet Office being a place where cross-Government stuff is co-ordinated. What do you think MHCLG has been able to bring to this as the lead? Nona Buckley-Irvine: The Department has run a number of programmes over the past few years; we have moved fr…”

“It would be useful to have the list, if we could, of Departments that are around the table. Nona Buckley-Irvine: Yes, we can share that.”

“Obviously, MHCLG is very engaged, but let us take the Department of Health. How engaged are the Department of Health in this conversation? Nona Buckley-Irvine: Really engaged. A key example is that we have been working with them on the neighbourhood health programme and making sure that Barrow has a place in that, and …”

“You have given us a good overview of the issues you are facing, but we are also interested in the challenges. What challenges have you been through on this journey, probably from 2023 to now? What challenges do you foresee in the future?”

“Which are those Departments? Sorry to put you on the spot. Nona Buckley-Irvine: We have DfE, DfT, Ministry of Defence and DWP. We are bringing in the Office for the Impact Economy to leverage investment. There are others too, but you have put me directly on the spot, so I can follow up.”

“Is that every Government Department? Nona Buckley-Irvine: It is every Government Department that we feel has a stake in delivery.”