Speeches by Williams.

“I agree.”

“I think this is a question of how the accounts were put together by the 13 RFCAs, the consolidation by the council, the role of the auditors for those accounts and the financial oversight from the Department, which collectively has not been where it needs to be. We have talked in this hearing about how we are improving…”

“In Burslem, a memorial to our Royal Doulton fallen was very sadly lost. I am proud to have joined a campaign led so brilliantly by Mike Lightfoot, ably supported by the former MP Joan Walley, St Modwen Homes and others, to reinstate the memorial, which will be unveiled on VJ Day this August. With Armed Forces Day appro…”

“Happy birthday, Mr Speaker. At the former Chatterley Whitfield colliery in my constituency of Stoke-on-Trent North and Kidsgrove, the council has launched an ambitious plan to go from black to green, creating a combined digital and eco park that includes an AI growth zone. Will the Secretary of State meet me—alongside …”

“I thank my hon. Friend and neighbour for giving way. She is eloquently outlining the real skills and talents of our people who make world-class ceramics. I echo her support for new clause 1, brought forward by my hon. Friend the Member for Stoke-on-Trent Central (Gareth Snell). Recently I met the GMB union and workers …”

“In Stoke-on-Trent, £11 is spent per young person per year on youth services. In inner London, the figure is £111. Meanwhile, Staffordshire police is one of a handful of forces that has fewer police on the beat than it did in 2010. Does my hon. Friend agree that when this Government look to invest, they must understand …”

“As a proud Stokey, I cannot wait to celebrate our city centenary on 5 June alongside my fellow residents. Will the Leader of the House join me in congratulating Councillor Jane Ashworth OBE, leader of Stoke-on-Trent City council, and our fantastic Lord Mayor Lyn Sharpe on their exceptional leadership in delivering a tr…”

“Yes. As I have touched on already, at the heart of the reform programme is being really clear about the specific responsibilities and accountabilities within the four main areas of nuclear, Department of State, Military Strategic Headquarters and the national armaments director. In the capabilities space—CDS and the NA…”

“I am happy to do that. There is no disagreement about the ambition.”

“We need to finalise the strategic defence review and get that published, and there is a Government intention to do that, I think, before the summer break. We need to work through some of the more detailed capability choices through an internal balanced investment process, and then set out the results of that for parlia…”

“I cannot give you a specific date. The process needs to follow—”

“These are all questions that we are currently considering, and I set some of those out in my letter to the Chair last month. One of the criticisms that the Committee rightly had of the previous versions of the Report was that, by the time we finished the planning round, we provided data to the NAO, the NAO produced its…”

“As I indicated earlier, it is the Government’s intention to get back into a routine of sharing information on our forward plans once we are through this cycle of the SDR and the spending review and for that data to be available to colleagues in the NAO to analyse and provide insight to the Committee. In advance of that…”

“There were only two of those. The last data shows a modest worsening of the position, and I think we may see that trend continue in the next set of data, which I expect to be published in the summer. For me, it is really about the complexity of delivery. Mr Start, do you want to give some colour to that?”

“First, this covers about 50 of our most complex programmes, so it should not surprise the Committee that those are the ones that intrinsically bring with them the most difficulty in delivery. A number are programmes with sub-projects, and we have made good progress on some of those. Some are already in service for prog…”

“There’s an incentive! I think there are two separate questions there, so let me unpack them and then we can address them very quickly. First, there is a question about the timeframe over which we are replenishing equipment, stocks and other consumables that we have donated to Ukraine. That is partly driven by investmen…”

“To build on the comments from both CDS and Mr Start, for me, in that space it is particularly about getting that innovation loop into our core, in terms of both requirement setting and then subsequent procurement. That is partly about making sure that we join up the warfighter with our own scientists and engineers, and…”

“From an accounting officer perspective, building on Mr Start’s comments, what the CDS and I have done here is agree with Ministers the overall effect that we are trying to deliver. So, if you like, we are operating at a portfolio level, not on individual purchases. We are agreeing a set of key parameters around what we…”

“In the interests of speed, I wonder whether I might hand over to Mr Start and then to the CDS.”

“That particular metric will be part of a refreshed dashboard that is being reviewed by us as a senior leadership team with Ministers, by the Defence Board. I think we will be in a better position to send an expectation of predominantly meeting that target once we are through the other side of the SDR and the defence in…”