Speeches by Scrogham.

“I understand that. Are you aware of how many in those early positions of leadership have been fired for wrongdoing— for sexual misconduct?”

“It is differentiating specifically between the Armed Forces and civilian life that I was interested in. Are they more at risk within the Armed Forces, Air Chief Marshal?”

“Okay. So, clearly, it is not just the people who are coming in at the lower-level ranks who have not had the training to understand what is wrong and what is not.”

“Brave choice, given that that has been listed as one of the worst and most toxic places to work for women. I would love to have a conversation about her experiences. To move on, with all those things in place—with all the changes that we are making and that you say you are making within the forces—why is sexual harassm…”

“There are other people in positions of power. I will now move on to General Jenkins, if I may.”

“But it is not. If we are still getting the same numbers five years after the report came out, that has not changed. Clearly, whatever we are doing, whether it be right at the start when people are coming in, is not enough, because nothing has changed in five years.”

“There is an awful lot of pressure on whoever does this job. We have seen some horrendously tragic cases. Looking particularly at Jaysley Beck, despite a lot of the changes we are bringing in, her mum is not at all convinced that anything has changed or is likely to change. What will you do within this role to change th…”

“It is a huge role.”

“Something that I have learned from being part of this Committee with fellow members who have served is that this is a really small and tight-knit arena, so it does not surprise me at all that you have worked with Calvin. However, when you have worked as part of that really tight-knit and well put together team and been…”

“Thank you for being here. You have spent much of your working career, until quite recently, in the armed forces, whether regular or reserves. How would you persuade people who do not have any faith or trust in that system that you, having been a part of that culture until very recently, will be able to challenge that s…”

“We have a very strong focus in this Committee on women in the armed forces, and the many issues we have seen and uncovered over the years. When I look back to one of our inquiries last year, when we had the head of each of the three armed forces in front of us, none of them could give me a straight answer to a question…”

“Welcome, everybody; it is nice to have you here. We have been repeatedly told “we expect the DIP” and that they are working flat out to deliver it. We were anticipating seeing it last autumn, but clearly that has been pushed down the line a bit further. We are told that defence contracts are still being signed in lieu …”

“Would you say there are any sectors that are particularly affected more than any others?”

“First, I should note that, for all their chatter outside this Chamber on defence, there is not a single Member of the Reform party here. They are utterly incapable of having a serious conversation when it comes to defence. I would like to congratulate the shadow Defence team. I did not believe it was possible to reduce…”

“Do you have details on which particular sectors those examples are from?”

“Bob, jumping back in on the decommissioning side, many boats have been waiting for decommissioning and waiting for funding on that. We have also had issues with areas to do the decommissioning or maintenance. We have a couple of graving docks. An Astute boat is sat there waiting for maintenance with no graving dock to …”

“No, we have heard quite enough.”

“Both Bob and Steve have referred to Barrow-in-Furness, and I think few MPs in this place would understand quite as painfully as I do the impact of delays to those contracts. We mentioned thousands of jobs. It was 10,000 jobs that we lost in Barrow, and we are now paying for those skills. We talk about the cost to the s…”

“No, I will not be taking interventions. Lots of Members would like to contribute to the debate who have not had a chance to speak because the time has been taken up. The Opposition can feel free to mutter from the other side, but they should perhaps use the ears that are painted on instead of flapping the lips. I am as…”

“Does anybody else want to comment on whether there is a particular sector that is affected more than others?”