Speeches by Williams.

“My answer is on a couple of levels. Colleagues to my left, in particular, may want to supplement briefly. First, I think it is about renewed emphasis on planning from NATO. That is all about ensuring that the 32 nations are able to operate collectively, with each of us knowing our place in the NATO war plans. As a them…”

“Yes. In future, that process will be run through the MSHQ with close engagement from the national armaments director, but we do a force testing process on an annual basis. Most recently, that exercise has included close allies and partners in the same way that we take part in their equivalent exercises.”

“Yes, we did. I might ask Mr Start to update you, but first let me say that this is in the context of this Government having a baseline position of quite far-reaching reform of the Department. Under our new set-up, Ms McTernan is responsible for the Defence Nuclear Enterprise, I run the new Department of State, the CDS …”

“It does not mean that there will have to be cuts elsewhere in the equipment budget, because as the Prime Minister announced at the end of February, the defence budget is also rising. One of those big capability questions that we need to answer through the SDR and the follow-on work is about the balance of investment in…”

“As an example, though, we are also looking at restarting artillery barrel production with Sheffield Forgemasters, in the first instance to support our partners in Ukraine. That involves thinking about how we can use our requirements and buying power to support the industrial base in a way that then gives us more resili…”

“Sheffield Forgemasters has an important part to play in supporting the nuclear programme, for which the CDN is there.”

“Let me talk slightly in the abstract, and then see whether colleagues to my left may want to give you a specific example. The strategic defence review may say that it is a priority for us to invest more in a particular area of capability. One question we then need to work through is the extent to which, thinking about …”

“Yes. As I said in correspondence with the Committee last month, the intention is to return to a drumbeat of providing greater insight and clarity about our future investment choices. We need to work through how far that mirrors what we have previously published, and how far it reflects the new defence reform set-up, wi…”

“There will be a range of details for us to work through after the SDR is published.”

“Yes, you will see some of that, although it is a strategic defence review that will need to be translated into a set of specific investment decisions in individual capabilities and projects. That will be work for later in the summer and into the autumn. I expect you will see confirmation of those areas of the current p…”

“I would not speculate on the precise date, but it will be between now and the summer break.”

“The Government said it would publish the SDR in the first half of the year. We have been talking about late spring, so we are not far off.”

“Let me start, and the CDS may want to come in. I can allay them to an extent. We are midway through the process of deciding how to invest that additional defence funding in priorities to ensure that we are supporting the armed forces in what the Government and the country ask of them. We are in the final phases of the …”

“Chair, the Annington deal, which was concluded at the start of the year, brings with it a range of opportunities in bringing back into public ownership some 36,000 service family houses, alongside the stock that we already owned directly. That means that investment that we make in upgrading those houses becomes an inve…”

“I will take that away.”

“Yes, I think we do in the central team, but as we come to roll the full impact of the reform programme across the Department, and indeed, as we deliver in parallel the recommendations of the strategic defence review and embody the defence industrial strategy, that needs a reforming transformation mindset and skillset a…”

“Let me look to my left to see if my colleague wants to give some examples. If not, I will carry on.”

“The good people of Kidsgrove were promised significant improvements to their town as part of the Kidsgrove town deal. However, Simon Tagg, the Conservative leader of Newcastle-under-Lyme borough council, alongside the former Conservative Member of Parliament, over-promised and under-delivered. They knew they did not ha…”

“My hon. Friend and constituency neighbour is making an excellent case about the work of the Coalfields Regeneration Trust in Newcastle-under-Lyme. In Stoke-on-Trent North, in partnership with Stoke City Community Trust, the CRT delivers the “Game On” football project for 11 to 18-year-olds at Norton cricket club. Does …”

“When constituents talk to me about what matters most in their day-to-day lives, roads come up time and again. Whether travelling to work, doing the school run or getting to vital medical appointments, the state of our roads affects people’s quality of life. When those roads are full of potholes and defects, and they da…”