Speeches by Scrogham.

“Who carried out the vibration analysis on the equipment?”

“Is an outside company coming in to do that, or has it already been done?”

“What are your thoughts on how long it has taken to get to this point? We have a huge capability gap without this, and it is already well beyond where it should have been for delivery. Surely this should have been picked up some time ago.”

“Not currently.”

“Coming back to your last comment before we moved on to the question of who pays, are you saying that this needs to be a workable model, so if it is not going to work, we will not be using it?”

“Thank you. Jim Carter, who is going to pay for this? We would very much like to know where the bill is going to lie. Also, are there any ongoing costs with something that is so unreliable? We know that two thirds of the overall costs of any piece of equipment are in the servicing and ongoing changes. Who is going to pa…”

“I will come back to that in a second, but I just want an answer on who is going to pay for it.”

“General Dynamics will be responsible for this?”

“Can you give us an update on the Ajax issues? How could the vehicles be declared operationally capable with those issues still in place?”

“I realise there are ongoing investigations, but when a vehicle is vibrating to the extent that it is making people ill and disconnecting pieces of equipment, surely anybody who tested it before declaring it operationally viable would have seen those issues. Why was that not picked up before that declaration was made?”

“That would be very helpful.”

“After 14 years of neglect, young people in Barrow and Furness are going to benefit from this Government’s commitment to supporting the apprenticeships that will drive our local economy. Does the Minister agree that Labour’s unprecedented investment in skills shows just how serious this Government’s commitment is to dri…”

“10. What steps his Department is taking to help to ensure that post-16 education provides the necessary skills to support the economy.”

“Thank you and welcome. Over the course of our inquiry, we have heard widespread support for an AUKUS visa that would allow easy transition for the workforce across all three of the trilateral countries. Has any work been undertaken on this? Is any current work being undertaken? If so, what kinds of models would you be …”

“I can see similarities with what we were just discussing about investment in Barrow. It is probably similar with Team Barrow and where we find ourselves now. We have huge interest from people who want to get involved with Team Barrow. Many of them want to invest with their own businesses. Others are interested because …”

“On the back of an AUKUS visa, should it ever emerge, do you have any concerns over the risk of our own skilled staff relocating elsewhere? Is that something that would be within a model that you would be looking at?”

“You think that the current system works now. What would put that at risk of not working in the future? Is that just a case where we have not trained enough staff in all three nations, or is it something different where we may need to move staff around to be transferring those skills? Is an AUKUS visa something that you…”

“That is a big part of it. We are putting in funding, but so far all they have seen in Barrow is that we have stopped a project. That is what people see. There was a smaller project going to happen to the market, which was very run down and looking a bit dilapidated. With Team Barrow coming in, we have said that we can …”

“I have absolutely no doubt that we will be able to deliver the infrastructure needed to build those submarines. What we do not yet see is any physical sign on the ground. If you talk to people in Barrow-in-Furness, they have heard all of this before. They have been let down for decades. For the people who actually live…”

“Stephen Lovegrove told us not too long ago that past investment into pillar 1 did not happen quick enough. He described an ongoing requirement to make sure that funding coming into Barrow happened quickly and that was the biggest risk to AUKUS pillar 1. What was the root cause of the delays in the past with the funding…”