Speeches by Twigg.

“Order. If Members can keep their speeches to five or six minutes—we are doing okay—then everyone will get a chance to speak before the wind-ups.”

“Order. I remind Members to bob if they wish to speak.”

“Order. The Minister is not giving way.”

“I remind the right hon. Lady that interventions should be short.”

“I forgive you.”

“I note that the shadow Secretary of State made great play of the changes and the extra safeguards that Ministers of the previous Government put in place following the breach. I also note that the Secretary of State said he had had to make more changes and introduce new software. That suggests to me that the changes put…”

“Will that not be one of the metrics shared with this Committee?”

“We went to Joint Force Command at Norfolk recently. It was a very interesting visit. In the Committee’s previous guise, it went to Naples. On those visits, some concern was expressed about the vacancies that were being carried. We know from the answer to a recent parliamentary question that 80 vacancies exist, which th…”

“But when you say 80, it sounds a bit different from 8.6%, doesn’t it?”

“I do not think that necessarily reduces the importance of the role.”

“How many vacancies do you expect to have in a year’s time?”

“You expect them to be filled.”

“So there is no guarantee that you will have filled those vacancies in 12 months’ time.”

“You can understand the perception: if we are saying that we have a NATO-first policy, but there are 80 vacancies, that does not quite tally.”

“Since the SDR, does Defence need to change how it works with other Government Departments to ensure readiness and resilience? If so, how?”

“Do Ministers have to do more to drive change?”

“You have just done cyber-security; if I take another case study, in the SDR there is a whole section on defence medical services. In the start of that section it says, “Ensuring the health and operational medical care of the UK’s Armed Forces is vitally important to deterrence and defence”. It goes on to say, “A moral …”

“I understand that. My issue is that, given the seriousness of the problem in Defence Medical Services, I am just very surprised that there has been no ministerial discussion between the Department of Health and the Ministry of Defence on the issue.”

“Thanks. The Committee welcomes the Government’s intention to enable scrutiny of the UK’s warfighting readiness by publishing metrics every year. How will you consult on developing those metrics? How will you consult us, the Committee, on that?”

“We are talking about warfighting readiness. I understand medics are an important support for our service personnel.”