Speeches by Twigg.

“Is there anything else that we should be made aware of on any platforms or equipment where there are current problems in terms of their ability to be used?”

“This did not just happen overnight. It must have been a gradual breakdown. Again, it raises the question about trust within the Department. If Ministers are not being informed on a timely basis about problems when they have arisen, there is a concern, isn’t there?”

“The 6,000 in-service trucks are not usable. It is a bit of an issue.”

“How long was it between when the problem was identified and Ministers being informed?”

“What about the 6,000 in-service SV trucks and the issue around spare parts? What is going on with that?”

“Clearly somebody did not understand what happened, because they advised you that everything was okay.”

“If you cannot have confidence in the advice given to you, that raises a problem about relationships within the Department, does it not?”

“Someone told you something that was inaccurate then, because you would not have said that unless you were fairly confident that you were being given advice that you thought would stand up to public scrutiny.”

“You are on record saying that the problems are solved.”

“The Home Secretary’s statement is most welcome. The proposals that she set out today are a significant step in the right direction. The comments that she made about the damage to the social fabric of this country are important. I have a specific question about asylum seekers who have committed crimes and are deported, …”

“The objective of the objectives is to get there.”

“Do I take it from what you have been saying that we have not really set the right objectives?”

“To follow on from Lincoln Jopp’s questions, I naively thought when I first came into Parliament many years ago that the Ministry of Defence was the military headquarters. But, as we have been talking about, there are now other headquarters and so on. We can talk about the rights or wrongs of that, and you have already …”

“This is my last point, because you have covered some of it. This reform process is supposed to be delivered in the autumn, but we are nearly out of the autumn, so we will see. Given the various scenarios you have painted, what would you say are the top two or three outcomes or indicators that would say whether it is a …”

“But factually, we have now gone from two people who are equal and technically cannot outvote each other to four.”

“But they do not have to have equal standing with the CDS—is that right? I am just putting that out there because of the questions around reform. We have now created a Quad, and they are all, as far as I understand it, of equal standing. Basically, there is no one now, unless you go to the Secretary of State or Minister…”

“We have civilian oversight with the Secretary of State.”

“Why does the permanent secretary need to have equal standing with the CDS?”

“You both said—I know this myself from when I was in there—that there are tensions between the permanent secretary and the CDS over issues as time goes on.”

“Because of the number of Members who have indicated that they wish to speak in the debate, with the authority of the Chairman of Ways and Means, I am imposing a time limit on Back Benchers’ contributions of two and a half minutes.”