Speeches by Pollard.

“I might bring colleagues in to answer that, but at a high level, we are seeing an increase in sub-threshold activity, which can have an influence on both the UK and our allies. Some of that is using technologies that already exist, such as drones. The MOD operates a good counter-UAS capability, but drones are dual-use …”

“As a matter of default, we would not comment on operational activities or intelligence matters, so I would not be able to comment on that specific example. If we were to point to activities that are in the public domain in relation to a similar type of cohort, we know that there have been Russian-backed activities in t…”

“Yes, but we want to do more. Deterrence by denial, which is what you are getting at, is about making sure that we have the capabilities, the credibility and the intent to, basically, deter any action before it takes place. That is part of a broad range of tools that the Ministry of Defence and, indeed all of Government…”

“That is precisely the reason why we have set out a clear policy to move to 3% in the next Parliament. What we need to demonstrate with 2.5% is a journey to reform our armed forces, so that that money is spent better than it has been in the past. That deep defence reform that we need to take place is not only in procure…”

“It is a very good report that the Committee did.”

“It was a really useful one in highlighting the state of our forces at any given moment. As a Minister, if we ask our forces to do something, can they do it? Yes. Can they provide credible deterrence? Yes. Do we want them to do more, potentially, and provide greater deterrence? Yes, certainly. To do that, we have to add…”

“We are making changes to the system of procurement. We are trying to remove the barriers and the obstacles, so that we can refill our stockpiles. We increased defence spending in the Budget last year by £2.9 billion, with an increased budget of 2.5% from April. That provides the resources to create the renewal of our f…”

“We are still making changes. There is still work to do. We have to refill our stockpiles. We have to reform defence procurement. We have to value our people more. We have to fix a broken recruitment and retention system. Against all of those, we are making progress. The SDR will really help as a catalyst to show the fu…”

“We still have more work to do.”

“What do you mean by “hybrid threats” there? Effectively, anything below active kinetic activity could be covered by the definition of “hybrid threats”, and so we can point to nearly all of our budget being in that direction. If there are particular hybrid threats that we are looking at, the approach that I expect will …”

“As a former Minister, you will know that I will not be able to give an answer to that last question.”

“I would not be able to give an answer on that one, because it would depend on what we mean by “operations”.”

“We try to keep the submarines out of sight, as a general rule.”

“What I would say, though, in respect of an answer is that there have been some very clear changes. For instance, the move of the British Army from being an expeditionary force fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq to now being much more orientated against a state threat—Russia—does change the force posture. It changes what …”

“We know what our budget is currently.”

“A Typhoon can be a response to a hybrid threat as well as a conventional threat. What underlines the difficulty of how this area is approached in public debate and your inquiry is the fact that you can count them separately. We could draw lines across it. That is an unhelpful approach to how we look at the capabilities…”

“You have seen from this Government examples of where we are being more proactive.”

“Yantar is a really good example of that.”

“I would also point to the broader area of UK leadership when it comes to Ukraine, because quite a lot of our counter-Russia activity has a Ukrainian flavour to it in terms of our support for Ukraine. This year, we are spending £4.5 billion, which is more than before, on our support for Ukraine. That is not just in ammu…”

“In the event of any actions being taken against UK infrastructure, we would look at all the options that are available to us. One of the differences between the UK responding to a hybrid threat such a cable cut and an adversary doing it is that we draw on different strengths than they do. Alliances are a key part of ou…”