Speeches by Reed.

“Is there a view that there might be regional disparities across the UK when that is put in place?”

“Caroline, Kate, Mike and Canon Peter, thank you for being with us today and—to echo the sentiments of the rest of the Committee—thank you for all you do for our armed forces. I want to refer to a Royal British Legion study that was conducted last August on the UK public’s awareness of the Covenant. It states that 67% o…”

“There will be disparities across different Departments about the data that you collect, whether quant or qual. Are you aware of what the MOD will be asking for, and do you think there will be consistency in what it asks for from your Departments?”

“How is that going to work in practice? Will it be a case of you presenting to them, or do you see it as more of a collaborative process, where they are sharing what good looks like? Following on from that, Nick, are you going to have a similar process in DWP? Is this going to be a cross-Whitehall and NHS thing? Is ther…”

“I think the vast majority of Members of this House can agree that the arguments for giving away our Chagos islands have been threadbare at best, which leads one to believe that there must be sensitive elements to the deal. It was, then, interesting to read what the former FCDO special adviser Ben Judah wrote: “Once you…”

“William, can I touch on a few of the points you raised? On my understanding, you will get the guidance from the MOD, and you will go off and implement and monitor it. Then you will have three touch points throughout the year with the MOD.”

“I have a very short question. Caroline, you touched on this in one of your previous answers. Is it the view at the moment that extending the Covenant’s duty to Whitehall Departments will make it easier to collaborate properly with delivery bodies?”

“The Government now admit that they cannot ratify the Chagos treaty without first amending the UK-US agreement on Diego Garcia. Currently, that binding agreement requires Chagos to remain under UK sovereignty until at least 2036. Can the Minister confirm that if the United States does not agree to amend that agreement, …”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms McVey. We all know the world is becoming more dangerous. We talk about it all the time. We have these conversations in Parliament. We have them at home with constituents, family and friends, but we all know that words and conversations alone will not protect us. We nee…”

“The former Foreign Secretary said very explicitly last year that if the United States does not like this deal, it will not go ahead. The US does not like this deal; it has been very explicit on that. Can the Minister tell us whether the now Deputy Prime Minister was telling the truth when he made those comments?”

“That is exactly what it is.”

“I am so happy that the Government are finally waking up to this issue and how serious it is, and that there is a cross-party consensus on the need to ban social media for under-16s. Social media platforms are designed to be addictive; we all know that. Most adults cannot control themselves, so how can we expect our chi…”

“I have heard from many struggling businesses across my constituency about the increasing pressures that they are facing. To give just one example, under the Government’s original plan, a small independent shop in Exmouth would have seen its rateable value rise by about 50%, wiping out the benefits of the lower small bu…”

“Does the Minister’s Department assess that the Iranian regime can come back from this and move into a position of strength? If so, does he assess that the sanctions packages being put forward are enough to limit that happening?”

“The good people of Exeter want their elections to go ahead as planned in May, yet the Labour super-majorities both on Exeter city council and here in Westminster leave no realistic prospect of fighting the decision. Does the Minister agree that Exeter city council is quickly losing its democratic mandate and is moving …”

“To start, I reiterate the point that my hon. Friend the Member for Romford (Andrew Rosindell) made in his opening speech: we are at a major crossroads in this conflict and the stakes could not be higher. On the line is Ukraine’s sovereignty, the freedom of its people and the wider security of Europe—in truth, the secur…”

“Making the same mistake repeatedly is a form of stupidity. As a country, we keep doing the same thing. If we cast our minds back to the debacle with Huawei, we will remember that we let the Chinese Communist party essentially into our 5G network. We did not listen to our national security advice, but we stopped and pul…”

“What assessment has the Foreign Office made of the Iranian regime employing foreign militias from countries such as Iraq and Lebanon to crush internal dissent? If that is happening, what is the international community doing to limit this activity?”

“I place on record my thanks to the Met Office, which is based in my constituency, for its sterling work throughout Storm Goretti and all year round. It has international expertise and is a real asset to our country. One of the main issues that comes up when we have big storms such as Goretti is rail in the south-west. …”

“We have talked about the regulators having new powers to designate critical national infrastructure in regard to cyber-security threats, but who actually has accountability? The Bill refers to “regulations made by the Secretary of State.” Which Secretary of State is that, given that this is a cross-departmental and cro…”