Speeches by Twigg.

“How much overspecification do you think is still in the system?”

“What is Wedgetail costing additionally?”

“I have a final question for Mr Williams before we finish. Both the Defence Committee and this Committee are concerned about the fact that there is a budget of approximately £300 billion for equipment over 10 years based on figures from two years ago. How do we scrutinise that?”

“I think we get the structure because we have read our briefs and we understand that. What I am trying to find out is how it will make a difference to delivery on the ground. You mentioned culture, for instance; maybe you could give us a few examples of how you are changing culture.”

“Mr Williams, could you set out for the Committee how your reform programme is going to deliver more equipment projects on time and to cost?”

“Sorry to interrupt, CDS, but are you saying there was no clarity from the Secretary of State for Defence before?”

“Thank you; that is useful. I am just trying to get to the process. What is the trigger that hits you, the quad, that you find within the system and says there is overspecification or people are still changing a project well down the line of its development? What is the trigger for you?”

“That is the question. What is different?”

“How would you stop the overspecification? What is the trigger that appears somewhere in your new quad organisation and says, “Hang on a minute. Someone is overspecifying here”? What is that?”

“I am still not sure about the trigger, but Mr Williams, could you tell us this? Currently, do you have the right calibre and skillset within the MoD to drive this reform through, or do you have shortages in that area? In other words, is there a risk in relation to then having the people in place to drive reform of acqu…”

“Finally, the Procurement Minister told the Business and Trade Committee in March, “The target is to reduce the average time to contract at that top layer from six years to two years and at the middle layer from three years to one year. At the bottom layer, we want to be able to get to contract in three months.” When wi…”

“You don’t have a timescale, then.”

“So it is a target without a timescale.”

“I congratulate my right hon. Friend on the work he has done to secure extra funding for defence and for Ukraine. It is clear that Putin does not want peace and that all he is interested in doing is gaining Ukrainian territory. We have to send a clear message to him that neither we nor our allies are taking a step backw…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for her statement; I know that she is doing all she can on the issue. We cannot have a defence industrial strategy unless we have our own primary steelmaking facilities, so clearly we cannot let these furnaces close. I was interested to hear what the Minister said about having various meetings in…”

“I refer the Leader of the House to the public office standards Bill, better known as the Hillsborough law, which is how I would like to refer to it. She will know my history in what happened at Hillsborough and, subsequently, with the independent panel report, and the involvement I had in the negotiations between Minis…”

“I am not asking for the detail of what the operations were. I am asking how many operations you have been involved in.”

“Is it an option that the Government might consider?”

“So we allow them to take out our communications but we would not take theirs out.”

“Yes, we know that.”