Speeches by Pollard.

“If Chris needs to clarify his words, I think that he is happy to. I think that he was referring to who is in the leadership positions on delivering the programme. We are very clear on who is in the leadership positions in delivering the programme in both Australia and the USA. In relation to the Bridge Colby report, we…”

“I will start with that and perhaps ask Chris to fill in where we are on funding. The stop-start nature of submarine builds that we have seen in Britain over the last few decades severely damaged our skills base and the machinery used to build the bits that go into a submarine, and caused an atrophy of the supply chain.…”

“I would challenge that ever so slightly. We are working with our American and Australian friends on a whole range of technologies at the moment. We are looking at whether we can develop signature capabilities alongside them. That is subject to outcomes from the US review and agreement between those three nations. What …”

“I might turn to Chris for that.”

“The Secretary of State and I are big fans of having defence unicorns. The technology space, and drones in particular, would be one of those areas where I would look to see some of those firms grow. There are a number of firms with enormous growth potential, both in the UK and in the international markets, across the di…”

“We are already seeing large amounts of investment in the drone autonomy sector from UK businesses and from foreign direct investment into the UK. There are a number of locations where we are seeing a real investment focus on that. As a Plymouth MP, I would say that there is lots of marine autonomy in Plymouth. We are a…”

“No, I do not agree with that assessment.”

“About a fortnight ago, Defence Ministers opened two drone factories in the UK, one in Plymouth with Helsing and another one in Swindon on the back of having opened a drone factory in Swindon only a few months previously. The SDR set out very clearly that we want to see more investment in autonomy and allocated a much l…”

“We want it and we welcome it because it speaks to the wider point about telling the story about defence. The Secretary of State has set out his ambition to publish it. We are working on it at pace. In fact, two of the three of us, if we were not in front of your Committee, would be in meetings about the DIP trying to a…”

“On a standard basis, there are safety notices.”

“Safety notices are a very common occurrence in defence due to the large number of platforms that we have and what we do with those platforms. Issuing a safety notice for a problem to rectify is pretty standard fare. I would not expect every single one of those small issues to be notified to Ministers. As a prudent resp…”

“We maintain forces that have a degree of readiness.”

“It is a concern if it is a fundamental problem that relates to something stepping outside of the usual process. In relation to the MAN trucks—it is important to say that that is different and distinct from Ajax—a problem was identified and the system worked as it was appropriate and as it was supposed to do, identified…”

“Absolutely, yes. We are looking at a new process to make sure that the trucks can be used, and that safety notice is being implemented as we speak.”

“As a standard practice, it is not usual that Ministers would necessarily be informed of every single safety notice.”

“As part of usual safety activities, the military will issue safety notices on a regular basis that look at when a fault has been identified and instruct what the requisite repair is. In relation to the MAN vehicles—that is the trucks in plain English—a fault was identified, a rectification order was issued and the proc…”

“I want to make sure that we have an understanding first.”

“I want to see what the results are, but I share the general concern I think you are raising. I want to make sure that all advice given to Ministers, myself included, is timely and accurate.”

“Absolutely, yes. I know I am going back to this, but we do not yet know the cause of what happened to those vehicles that has created the problems that our soldiers have experienced. I want to get on top of what the actual problem was. Was it a maintenance issue? Was it a design problem? Was it an issue with the platfo…”

“When the DIP is published, I would expect considerable parliamentary scrutiny.”