Speeches by Thomas.

“You have just brought up as an example of AUKUS pillar 2’s success us exercising off the coast of Australia with a particular large underwater capability and the Australians exercising at the same time with the same capability. In fact, they are not the same. They are different. Theirs was made by someone else because …”

“I guess that what I am driving at is that we have just discussed the abject failure of the Ajax programme thus far in the UK. You were quoted in the Financial Times as saying that you were advised by everyone, from the top brass down to the people working on the platform themselves, that it was safe on 5 November. Thre…”

“We had the news earlier this week from Australia that it is conducting its own overhaul of defence, not long after the UK is under way with defence reform here. It put out a press release saying that it will have a new national armaments director, using the same language as we have here, who will report directly to its…”

“UKDI will have a leader, who is not currently there. We do not know how senior they will be, but we do know they will report directly to the National Armaments Director.”

“Who will they report to, whoever that leader is?”

“Nine months after the announcement of defence reform and UKDI, it would be good to have an idea, not just for me but for industry, which is desperate for a clear idea about what the MoD wants it to do, what it wants it to invest in and what capabilities it wants. That would be very useful.”

“Almost a year after the defence reform was announced, we still do not know how senior the leader of UK Defence Innovation will be.”

“How senior will that leader be in terms of staff?”

“It will be direct to the NAD.”

“Yes. Speaking frankly, I think that a lot of people around Team Plymouth wanted that to happen, and it has not happened. You mentioned governance and roles, and Peter alluded to bringing people into the tent, such as local MPs and the NHS—we have a massive hospital in Plymouth. But we do not have a CEO of Team Plymouth…”

“The SRO is in the MoD, yes.”

“Thank you.”

“Team Plymouth is now jointly led by Defence Minister Lord Coaker and MHCLG Minister Miatta Fahnbulleh MP—we were able to announce that a couple of weeks ago—so we have joint sponsorship from both those Government Departments.”

“Working groups—yes.”

“I am a Plymouth MP, and was very proud to host the launch of Team Plymouth a couple of weeks ago here in Parliament. It is not a new concept, clearly; we had the Growth Alliance Plymouth before. Work has been going on for years to get the city ready for the increased workforce demands that are coming, and we have been …”

“Whose whole job is Team Plymouth.”

“You have touched on previous efforts at defence reform. What do you think are some of the problems and aspects that the current MoD needs to respond to that maybe are new in this contemporary operating environment? You have touched already on space, but could you expand on that? I will start with Matthew.”

“Is it not fair to say that the MoD has created a cyber force?”

“I do.”

“There is an interesting balance there, which we are grateful for. Dr Curtis, you spoke about space earlier. In the context of what Matthew mentioned about a new look at our relationship with America, it was reported over the last week—I don’t know whether it is true—that the MoD has stopped sharing intelligence in the …”