Speeches by Reed.

“Linked to that point, on the other side of a lot of the measures in the Bill will be employers. From your assessment, what is the current view of employers regarding measures in the Bill?”

“A small follow-up: as the international system descends into more volatility, do you feel that the national conversation is being had at the moment? Where do you think we are on that progression?”

“General, thank you for being with us today. The Prime Minister has set out that he wants to have a national conversation on defence, and that was highlighted very clearly in the SDR. What role do you think reservists should play in having that conversation? Do the measures in the Bill help to support that outcome?”

“Picking up on what Vince said about rewards, incentives and good ideas from the cold war, is there anything that we can draw today from those historical lessons?”

“Very nice!”

“Blairite policies told 50% of my generation to go to university. Looking back at those conversations, we see that rarely did anyone ever talk about who would pay for those students to go to university, or how the jobs market would then take on that amount of graduates. It is clear that the student finance system does n…”

“I think we can all agree that international law has an important role to play, but the world is changing and we must adapt to protect our national security. Given that international law is broad in nature and open to interpretation—we have seen that in the differing views of the Attorney General and the shadow Attorney…”

“As a former Royal Marine, Gibraltar has a special place in my heart—we have “Gibraltar” emblazoned above our globe and laurel crest for the valiant efforts of former bootnecks in 1704. Having transferred seamlessly through Gibraltar on previous operations, I know how important it is to be able to transfer kit and equip…”

“I thank my right hon. Friend for the work she and her Committee have done on this report. To my knowledge, this is the first time artificial intelligence has hallucinated and given a response that has been used by a public body to make a decision. To my right hon. Friend’s understanding, has West Midlands police learne…”

“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.”

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

“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…”

“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?”

“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…”

“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.”