Speeches by Norman.

“So what was the worry about starting on time? Where is the concern?”

“Missing one prejudices the whole thing.”

“What is the next step that needs to be hit, as part of that recapitalisation process?”

“Harry and Steve, are things on schedule?”

“Someone suggested to me that there are not enough engineers in Australia currently to maintain a Virginia-class sub, let alone build one.”

“Your point is that they are on track at the moment, but the balance between sustainment and build is wrong. Is that right?”

“Steve Timms, what is your view on the schedule? Are we on schedule at the moment?”

“So you have a concern about a rebalancing away from design and build, within the spend envelope, towards operation, because that would prejudice the design and build phase, which you think is so important. Is that right?”

“It sounds as though there is a need for a rebalancing, but no one quite wants to say that that means taking less money from one and putting it into the other.”

“How good is the road map in terms of future funding from the MoD? Can you actually see it? Is it clear enough? Are you getting the demand signal you need? In this Committee, we have a big worry about intensity, urgency, readiness, firmness of purpose, follow-through and red tape. You have seen the Chancellor talking to…”

“Thank you. You have talked about workforce and, rightly, about the need to double the speed of production—”

“You have talked about the need to halve the period of time it takes. Quite a lot of measures were set out in the defence nuclear enterprise Command Paper about how to improve the workforce. Do you think they are adequate? What were the good things and the bad things? What is really working?”

“Because you cannot grow a nuclear engineer in five years. They have to grow into experienced capability over a long period of time, so you start early in scale and then you develop them through the experience—”

“So if you do not invest in the workforce early, you are actually increasing your risk.”

“What about growing that capability in Australia? What are we doing to build that?”

“Obviously, it is a pretty dramatic challenge here, but in a place where there is really very little nuclear defence capability in place at all, it is going to be a huge challenge.”

“That is very helpful. Thank you so much.”

“I thank the Leader of the House for the business. On this 24th anniversary of 9/11, I know the whole House will want to join me and, I am sure, the Leader of the House in sending our best wishes to the families and the friends of the victims of those horrendous terrorist attacks. So, too, our best wishes go to those gr…”

“Will the new Leader of the House give us the forthcoming business?”

“Okay, so it is a major geo-strategic defence move in the Indo-Pacific, but it is really about what the UK is, in part, as a defence power, in a way that has not been recognised by painting it as a purely Indo-Pacific initiative. Is that what you are saying?”