Speeches by Roome.

“I welcome the Minister’s opening speech; as a member of the Defence Committee, I look forward to scrutinising the detail of his remarks. I wish to say a brief word of thanks to the Royal Marines Association, the Royal British Legion, SSAFA, the Veterans Charity and many others that all do good work in my constituency o…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for securing the debate. Patients in Lynton, one of the remotest communities in North Devon, will soon have access to a GP, but that only happened because of a spirited campaign by local patients. Does he agree that if we are relying on an active community to highlight gaps in provision, it will …”

“I thank the Minister for agreeing to visit North Devon district hospital very shortly, and I look forward to welcoming her to my constituency. Despite some welcome extra repairs under the estates safety fund, that hospital now faces many years of make do and mend. What provision have the Government put aside for those …”

“I thank the hon. Member for Isle of Wight East (Joe Robertson) for securing this debate, which is important to my constituents in North Devon. I will briefly raise the case of a brave young man from North Devon. His name is Oscar, he is 14 years old, and he recently saved the life of a man who got into trouble in the s…”

“Let us turn to the elephant in the room. I would love your synopsis. How critical is the role of the United States in shaping NATO’s strategy and security operations in the High North? How do you see the US’s defence posture shaping what is happening, particularly in that region?”

“First, to focus on defence and security in the Arctic and the High North, the SDR obviously put its spin on that yesterday and mentioned Atlantic Bastion—our version, not the Russian one. Could you elaborate on the main defence and security challenges you see in the High North?”

“And potential grey zone activities as well, which we see with the sub-threshold?”

“As part of that diplomacy we have the Arctic Council, to which you alluded earlier. How important is that in this context?”

“Finally, I turn to Dr Rogers for a one-minute answer, if possible, because we will finish at 12.30 pm.”

“Last week, I visited many retail businesses in North Devon that are suffering from prolific shoplifting. This is a big problem across the country. Will the Home Secretary explain what she is doing to help police forces resource the tackling of shoplifting and dealing with antisocial behaviour?”

“Much of the new hardware pledged today will not be delivered for some years and will not be effective without the personnel to operate it. What more will the Government do right now, not in 2034, to ensure that our armed forces recruit the service personnel who these long-term plans will rely on?”

“I am sure the Sunday papers would like to thank the Government for advance sight of their upcoming statement. I am a member of the Defence Committee and I ask the Leader of the House to acknowledge that this urgent question is actually wasting all our time. Mr Speaker is quite right in granting it, but if procedure had…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Dowd. I thank the hon. Member for Mid Derbyshire (Jonathan Davies) for securing this important debate, and all hon. Members for their passionate contributions. The Liberal Democrats believe in keeping libraries well funded and accessible, recognising their role in p…”

“At the beginning of March, MoD procurement announced the start of the SME hub. What would you particularly like to see around the defence industrial strategy regarding support for SMEs? How do you want that to develop?”

“Could you say something about the defence industrial strategy and how you want to see that develop?”

“Thank you for coming today. Our SMEs play a vital role in defence. The CDS has said that there are around 8,000 to 9,000 SMEs in defence, although the MoD, in its published material, said that there are around 12,000 SMEs, with 40 primes, on average. The intention of the previous Government was that we should spend at …”

“One word that comes up in all these evidence sessions when we are talking about capabilities is “interoperability”. I want to ask about NATO integration and interoperability. It could be said that, since the 1980s, that has dwindled within NATO. What are the main challenges that NATO faces in achieving interoperability…”

“What would your top tip be to the MoD in its procurement?”

“One thing about being on this Committee that I have found really exciting, as we have gone round on visits and gone to various conferences and exhibitions, is how much innovation there is in our SMEs. My question alludes to what you were saying earlier, Alastair. How much of that innovation gets stifled by the primes? …”

“One area that is important to this country and worth billions of pounds is defence. What changes will the deal bring to the proposed defence industrial strategy for the big primes and for small and medium-sized enterprises, which this Government, and all of us, want to support?”