Speeches by Pollard.

“That is one of many initiatives in a space that we are quite excited about. There is a real opportunity, when it comes to multilateral financing for some of these opportunities, to look at what the right model is. Both the Treasury and the MOD are working to look at those. A number of the models have been backed not on…”

“The benefits of the progress that we have been making with the EU reset are most acutely felt in defence. That is why it had such a large part of the security and defence partnership work that benefits us. The agreement that we have made with the European Union does not put us into SAFE at this point—as an example—but …”

“I think, actually, there is strong support for us to be involved. There is a question about which programmes we feel there is a benefit for us to be involved with and how much we want to contribute and commit. Those are usual discussions. I do not think there is anything different from the discussions that we would nor…”

“As a leading NATO nation, we need to co-operate with both our European friends and our transatlantic ones. That would be pretty established as we develop capabilities and export kit and equipment across the NATO alliance and further afield.”

“I think that the Americans are very keen for Europe to step up. I have heard that message clearly; I think that many of our European allies have as well. Stepping up means doing more. Doing more has an industrial focus and a military focus, but that is entirely where the US wants Europe to be. We have heard that. We ar…”

“Yes, I am happy doing that. I am aware that the Government evidence on this was submitted six months ago and the world has changed quite considerably in the last six months, as has Government policy. I am happy to receive that and I will undertake to get a good response back to you.”

“Securing our national security is a job of everybody. It is absolutely right that those industries, big and small, that contribute to our national security in these heightened-risk times are supported and valued by the whole of society. Knowing Supacat—it is involved in the production of the Jackal 3, which is built in…”

“In some areas, certainly, I have regular conversations with some of our DH colleagues about some of those questions, but I am happy to take that detail away.”

“Across the board, we have been clear right from the start that we want to reduce payment terms for SMEs. That was an early announcement that the Treasury made in the first few weeks after we came into office. That needs to be implemented. I want to see clearer, easier payment terms that support SMEs. I know that Maria …”

“The first thing I will say is that the work that you have done with Luke Charters has been outstanding. It is a really good example of how really constructive challenge can create change. It is something that has certainly gripped the MOD and Treasury. One of the objectives that the Secretary of State and the team had …”

“I hope they are already saying that in relation to Ukraine procurement, because we work enormously with SMEs in that space. I think they should be able to see that, although that is a story that is, for very obvious reasons, harder to tell. When the SME support hub is at full operating capacity, when it comes out of th…”

“I am seeing the process, yes. The process of cultural change is happening in the defence reform work—having shaken up the organisation, in separating and being clear about the new responsibilities between the Department of State, MSHQ, NAD group and the Defence Nuclear Enterprise. That is creating culture change within…”

“The critique you mention is probably valid when it looks at the big procurements, but we can show that fast-fail works incredibly well in our support for Ukraine. It is not that this cannot be done; it is that it has not been done. The cultural incentives, the bureaucratic incentives, were not pointing in the right dir…”

“That is an area that Maria Eagle is working in. I do not want steal her sandwiches by pre-announcing anything on that, but certainly the intention, which the Secretary of State has laid out quite clearly, is to have more investment reaching our regions. Sixty-eight per cent of defence spending is outside London and sou…”

“I will ask Maria Eagle to write in detail on that point, but certainly the implementation of the financial services strategy that we seek to make will seek to recognise the difficulties that some firms have in raising investment and dealing with some of the valleys of death in terms of investment, bringing a product to…”

“The target on direct spend with SMEs is really important. I know that a number of members of the Committee are really championing the involvement of SMEs in the defence space. We are really keen to pursue that. Certainly, the objectives set out in the SDR, the sense that the Government have, and what will be in the def…”

“I can investigate that when I get back to the office, in terms of looking at it. The SDR is right that, if we want to move to warfighting readiness, which the SDR sets out clearly, we will need to invest considerably more in Defence Medical Services. That is a challenge—”

“To implement change—yes. Ministers need to set the clear strategic direction. In the MOD, we have done that by adopting all the recommendations in the SDR and driving the SDR consequences. It is not just implementing the 62 recommendations—although we are, and we will—it is also by taking the spirit of the SDR and appl…”

“Yes. The SDR set out that we want to do more to improve our article 3 role, homeland defence and national security. Some of those are shared endeavours. If I take the example of cyber-resilience, we have restructured some of our cyber-capabilities since the SDR by creating a new cyberEM command and looking again at the…”

“Cadets are led by the Minister for Veterans and People. I can write to the Committee with the details of spend against our commitment to increase cadets by 30%, which we set out in the SDR. The full implementation of that is with my colleague Al, so I am happy to write to the Committee, because I am not across the full…”