Speeches by Scrogham.

“We had a review recently in my patch where we brought defence together. One of the biggest sticking points was the fact that the SMEs could not get into the MOD. What you are saying is, “Reduce the bureaucracy and it will work better”.”

“Moving on to people again, the Committee continues to get really concerning reports about bullying and harassment, particularly against minority groups and women. What has been done in your time to try to put that right? Where do you see that changing? What has gone wrong?”

“I met recently with Jaysley Beck’s mum. She does not have any confidence that this is changing quickly enough, if at all. What would you say to her, faced with that? What would you do, in her position, to make this happen quicker and make sure that the people coming into this service are protected and they feel as safe…”

“Brigadier General, if you can bring it directly back to the SDR, do you think the Government’s approach towards Arctic policy is the right one?”

“Perhaps we can focus on the UK’s Arctic policy for a few minutes. We touched on the strategic defence review a little bit earlier, but what do you think the review actually tells us about this Government’s approach to the Arctic and the High North?”

“Not so much Ukraine, as we are looking at the High North. What do you think this Government should be prioritising for that area, given our constraints?”

“Given those restraints—you mentioned the black hole in the funding, and we all know what the challenges are—what priority should this Government place on the High North, as opposed to Ukraine or any other area of conflict?”

“I recently met the mother of Jaysley Beck, who tragically took her own life after being sexually assaulted and abused within the services. I was really impressed by her mother’s strength and her campaign. Does the Minister agree that the Bill will give more powers to family members, and that maybe we can avoid these tr…”

“I am sure that the whole House is in no doubt about just how proud we are in Barrow and Furness to be building the submarines that keep our nation safe. The commitment to expanding this country’s submarine programme, with up to 12 SSN-AUKUS boats to be built in our shipyard, is the start of the next chapter of that ill…”

“We have heard a lot about SMEs and the challenges that they face in gaining access to MoD and different contracts. We have, in my patch, the nuclear deterrent and, inexplicably, we have small SMEs in the same patch that are not in that supply chain. Is this something that you hear often? How do we deal with that challe…”

“How would you change that if you had a magic wand?”

“You touched briefly on covid. That escalated people’s thoughts on just how unprepared we are. We saw the lack of supplies in the NHS. Particularly in Cumbrian rural areas, which is my patch, that rurality and the difficulty within the community was raised during that in particular. Everybody automatically assumes that …”

“Given that the space sector is not solely defence, what challenges are you facing in engaging with multiple Government Departments? Dr McGibbon: We cover space and semiconductors. We cover DSIT, DBT, defence and the space sector. There are advantages to being dual use, but the disadvantage is that you can be pointed in…”

“Q7. I thank the Prime Minister for recently visiting the now royal port of Barrow in my constituency to lay the keel for the new Dreadnought-class submarines. He will have seen how proud we are to build our nuclear deterrent, which keeps us safe. As we move forward with our plan for change, does he agree that Barrow an…”

“Thank you. Ms Suess, do you have anything to add to that?”

“Okay. Would you seek to gain full access to Galileo again, and what is the likelihood of that happening?”

“We spoke about our reliance on the US for several things. How much of a vulnerability do you think our reliance is on the US system, GPS?”

“The £1.4 billion that has been allocated for 10 years does seem incredibly small compared to other countries. Do you think this is being taken seriously enough given the amount of funding that has been put behind it?”

“I thank my right hon. Friend for his statement. We have had a long-standing relationship with the US, which is our closest security ally. Does he agree that our continued work on AUKUS will help to deepen and strengthen that for all the nations involved?”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Jardine. The use of dogs in scientific and regulatory procedures is an issue that rightly draws strong public interest, with over 235,000 people signing the petition that we are debating. It is not just a small outcry, but a clear signal that action is needed. Like so …”