Speeches by Roome.

“Ed, do you have anything to add to that? The DIP was supposed to come out in the autumn, then we were told it would be towards the end of the year, and now we are told it will be March. What do you think is holding it up?”

“Keith, how is the absence of the defence investment plan impacting preparations for current and future conflict?”

“Defence reform comes into all that as well: is the MoD ready? Time is limited, so I will move on to my next question. Sir Hew, to what extent might an emphasis on the Ukraine conflict distort our understanding by overshadowing lessons drawn from other theatres of war?”

“We could invest better in naval shipbuilding if the Government paid attention to a report published by the National Audit Office, which estimates that £1.5 billion a year of defence spending is lost to fraud and that the Ministry of Defence recovers only 48p in every £1 spent on counter-fraud work, less than other Depa…”

“Just on that capability, Secretary of State, the armed forces are suffering as the Government retired the Puma in March 2025 leaving a medium-lift helicopter capability gap. So what is happening with awarding the medium-sized helicopter contract? As you say, there are thousands of British jobs within the SME supply cha…”

“Secretary of State, regarding the MOD budget, have you announced any in-year savings? If so, are you diverting money away from our people at the expense of big, shiny capabilities? I am talking about medical services, especially because we all focus on programmes—Typhoon, GCAP, AUKUS—but I never hear anything said abou…”

“Do you think the term of the all-society approach—bringing the public along with us on defence—will help them understand that we need to spend more money on defence and allow parliamentarians to put more pressure on the Treasury to assist in the role of getting that extra funding for those capabilities that are needed?…”

“As I understood it, there was only one successful candidate left in the contract.”

“The Tarka line in North Devon has seen a massive increase in footfall. However, the line is often closed because of the lack of infrastructure upkeep. Will the Minister meet me to discuss various funding opportunities? It is a rural line that is vital for students to get into Exeter and for people’s job opportunities—I…”

“Medical services in particular.”

“Obviously, the Committee heard from the previous Ministers around the interaction between the secrecy within the MOD and the unwillingness to let Parliament know some surroundings. In fact, James Heappey said he found himself “Increasingly uncomfortable with the amount that we were saying we could not disclose to the C…”

“It is a privilege to speak on the Armed Forces Bill, which will shape the direction of this country’s armed forces for the next half-decade. The war in Ukraine should be a wake-up call to all of us, and the world has not looked so dangerous since the end of the cold war. The strategic defence review talks about a whole…”

“T4. One of my constituents is a disabled Royal Navy veteran. Their migration to universal credit has been a nightmare, involving incorrect payments, long delays to identity verification and a lack of help with accessibility. I have received no response to their case since 13 November last year. Does the Minister agree …”

“Given the exceptional circumstances of this super-injunction, just for the record, did you ever meet your successor, John Healey, to discuss it and to do a handover, or was that left to the Department?”

“We all learn from our experiences in life, so my final question is: with hindsight, what, if anything would you have done differently during your time as Secretary of State?”

“I would like to talk about the timeline of the Government decision-making process for the relocation scheme. Obviously, the data breach was discovered in August 2023, but the first invitation letters under the new scheme were issued in April 2024. Can you give us an insight into why decision making within the Governmen…”

“Sir Ben, in November 2021 you told the House of Commons, following a series of other serious breaches within the Afghan relocations team, that you had “much greater assurance of data handling within the ARAP team”. What are your reflections on the information security systems and culture at the MoD, and how, in your vi…”

“Those affected by the breach.”

“In your time in office, what was your input into the relocation scheme?”

“Do you think any of the decision-making process in the MoD regarding those relocations could have been done any differently or sped up? Was the political will there? What was affecting it?”