Speeches by Twigg.

“Which the Department refuses to answer.”

“It is important that we understand exactly what you are saying. I think we all understand from what you just said that you cannot continue the way you are without avoiding cuts—”

“I think I understand what you are saying, and people can make their own judgments. It is now January. We are getting towards the end of the financial year. What is the current underspend or overspend on RDEL and CDEL budgets for each of the armed forces?”

“You can delay or decide not to go ahead with them.”

“If you have a programme that you cannot deliver, you cut it, don’t you?”

“So you would make cuts.”

“So without doing that, there is no way you can avoid a funding shortfall. That is what you are saying.”

“Are we talking about reducing programmes, changing programmes or taking programmes backwards?”

“I am trying to say: is there any possibility, based on what you are currently looking at, which does not involve cuts to programmes or, again, putting back programmes for a number of years, that would not bring about a funding shortfall without extra funding from the Treasury? Is there any scenario?”

“With respect, I have been very specific in my question. I take what you said about not wanting to go into the details of the programme at this point, but the question is quite simple: is there any scenario that can be delivered without cutting current programmes or reducing planned work that would ensure we don’t have …”

“So we are talking about cuts to programmes.”

“Either way, you have confirmed that you are overspent at the moment.”

“CDS, is there any scenario that you can explain to us where, without cutting the programmes or rolling back on planned work, there would not be a significant shortfall in funding?”

“So you have concerns that, at the moment, we are not there.”

“Do you have any idea when that plan might be in place? I am trying to get the sense of urgency here, and your concerns, because if service personnel are going to get wounded or hurt, we want to make sure that they have the best possible health services available to them.”

“Let us get to this plan. Where are we on that?”

“I am after your opinion on the Defence Medical Services. When I was a Minister from 2006 to 2008, one of my priorities was to sort out the problems with the Defence Medical Services, so I have some understanding of the issues. I think that, generally, the Defence Medical Services and the NHS kept on top of the casualti…”

“But in the process currently, you do not have enough money to meet what you want to do.”

“They did a fantastic job. But the NHS was in a much better position then: it was coming out of a very difficult period and was starting to get a lot of additional funding and make a lot of improvements. If we had twice the level of casualties we had in Iraq and Afghanistan in a future conflict, do you have concerns abo…”

“I call the Lib Dem spokesman.”