Speeches by Eagle.

“I agree with my hon. Friend: we need to do more to support British defence manufacturing, and we are doing more by reforming procurement and prioritising UK-based businesses for the work that we can give them.”

“I thank my hon. Friend for her welcome for that investment in her constituency. We have to do more to improve housing for military families, including in Suffolk Coastal. The defence housing strategy work includes an extensive review of our entire service family accommodation portfolio to determine how we will use our …”

“I thank the right hon. Gentleman for that point. I will look into it and get back to him.”

“I have met representatives of Aeralis on a number of occasions, as have my senior officials. The MOD has provided the company with considerable support as it develops its concept of a modular aircraft with digital design. The Department remains engaged with Aeralis, and with the sector as a whole, to seek a solution th…”

“I will certainly do that. Programme Euston is a £2 billion investment aiming to deliver resilient out-of-water engineering capability at His Majesty’s naval base Clyde by the early 2030s. Market engagement is under way, but it is too early for me to let my hon. Friend know of any kind of outcome. However, I recognise t…”

“The hon. Gentleman has set out some troop movement issues. We are moving to a lighter formation, but there is no reason why we cannot meet him and explain the situation in full, and I am very happy to volunteer my hon. Friend the Minister for the Armed Forces to do so.”

“My hon. Friend makes a good point. We are delivering for defence by putting people at the heart of our defence plans. The new consumer charter for families in military homes will include improved repairs, a named housing officer for every family, and a better and clearer complaints process. I am aware of the issues he …”

“I do agree with my hon. Friend, because under the previous Government the average time to contract was six years, and only two out of the 49 major projects they oversaw were on time and on budget. Our procurement reforms will speed up and improve delivery to the frontline, and thus boost our defence and security.”

“It is great to be here under your chairmanship, Mrs Hobhouse. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland (Luke Myer) on securing the debate and shedding light on the vital defence industry in the north-east, and particularly his part of the region. I thank my hon. Friends the Me…”

“DASA does great work. UK Defence Innovation is not going to replace DASA. DASA will still be part of the ecosystem. UK Defence Innovation is going to bring together some of the initiatives that already exist across defence in a more coherent way.”

“It is dangerous if Ministers start drawing organograms.”

“You do not mean in the Department; you mean generally in the economy.”

“I will try to find out whether we have an organogram. I will let you have it, if we do.”

“The establishment of UK Defence Innovation has not been announced for that long. It was announced in the last three weeks. There is a bit more detail today in the spring statement about the budgets that it will have and its aim. It will sit under the NAD in the NAD group of the Department. As I have said, that is being…”

“It will technically start on 1 April. A lot of preparatory work has gone into this. We know what the structure is. We are changing the whole structure of the way in which the Department works. This will all be under the national armaments director. That is being stood up starting 1 April. People have reacted very well.…”

“First of all, on access, at the moment it is almost impossible for a small or medium-sized enterprise to decide to try to get a defence contract. That is partly because it is hard for them to know who to contact at the moment. A lot of our contracting arrangements require quite significant waits and the production of v…”

“We did not want to produce an equipment plan this year before the strategic defence review sets out what capability we need. We are committed to having increased transparency with parliamentary colleagues. The Public Accounts Committee is very interested in this as well. We are not trying to hide what has been revealed…”

“On long-term partnerships and contracts, you might have seen the Unity contract that we signed with Rolls-Royce, which gives multi-year certainty about procuring on the nuclear side in a way that has enabled them to establish an academy to start thinking about making sure they have the right skills to do this over a nu…”

“They cry out for certainty, and they cry out for some understanding of what we want.”

“Yes. Part of our defence reform programme has been to say we are going to reform the way in which we do procurement. At the moment, we have one size fits all. It is CADMID for everything. It is concept phase, acceptance phase, demonstrator phase, manufacture, in service and disposal. There are lots of assurances, safet…”