Speeches by Martin.

“I think we would hope to work really closely with you, so thank you. I have a final question about media scrutiny. The media are interesting. They are like a placid lake—they ignore you—and suddenly there is something, you become the story of the day, and intense scrutiny comes from all angles. Have you had any experie…”

“This is a comment rather than a question, but you can sometimes shape the media narrative by getting ahead. You will enjoy doing that.”

“Thank you for coming today and for your time. I have a quick question on independence. I noticed that you are a reservist. Are you going to be resigning your commission before taking on this role?”

“I see you have started already—very good.”

“Because you report to Parliament, you are going to have to use politicians—“use” is not the right word—and their platform, alongside your own in order to drive through the change that you want to bring. Have you had any experience of operating in that space?”

“How do you work with politicians?”

“You mentioned Cyprus, which I thought was a really interesting example. What sort of issues were you grappling with there in a public-facing sense, with you having to speak to the media? How did you solve those challenges?”

“You touched on this before, but I would like to delve into some of your experience. As you said in relation to your priority, this is a major public-facing role, and you are going to be setting it up from scratch. Have you had experience of doing that sort of thing before? Are there things in your past that you can dra…”

“Accountability often comes from straight lines through organisations, rather than diffusion. Diffusion often leads to the opposite of accountability. Do you see part of your role as making recommendations to the Secretary of State where lines of accountability have been diffuse or blurred—where they need to be straight…”

“One way of summarising what you have just said is that you are going to bring greater coherence to it, so that there is just one channel, and you have dealt with all the recommendations. What would be your top one, two or three priorities over the next year?”

“I am really interested to hear you use the word “accountability”. It is such an important word when it comes to the MoD. As a Committee, we have seen repeatedly that many of the MoD’s woes lie in that word “accountability”, whether it is procurement, for example, over who is accountable for Ajax; losses of data, where …”

“Nobody wants a serviceperson or veteran to return to the back of the list. That would be completely contrary to what we are trying to do. Equally, if they were sixth on the list in the old area, we do not want them to be sixth in the new area. Is the hon. Member saying that their degree of clinical severity or urgency,…”

“Does my hon. Friend agree that, since the heart of the covenant is about establishing parity and equity of service provision for all serving personnel and veterans, we must establish exactly what that means as a minimum? Without establishing what services must be provided—as a floor, not a ceiling—how can we have equit…”

“It is a pleasure, after lunch, to continue serving under your chairship, Mr Efford. [Laughter.] That was not meant to be funny, but I suppose the best way to be funny is to be unintentionally funny. I rise to speak in support of new clause 2, which would legislate for the establishment of a veterans’ mental health over…”

“Perhaps it would be helpful to explain that it is a floor, rather than a target.”

“I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on having the largest wind farm in Europe in his constituency.”

“I agree with the hon. Lady. In the spirit of cross-party working, I say that we all support our veterans, and I think that the strides that the Government have made are fantastic. The previous Government had a Minister who was passionate about this issue, and he also made strides in this area. We are all trying to move…”

“The shadow Minister is exactly right. We have used a few metaphors today, including that of mental health as a journey. Another metaphor is that mental health is a garden that has to be tended. Each of us has a responsibility to introspect and check in with ourselves to see how we are doing, but the garden also needs t…”

“In the same vein, we see the Bill as part of our constitutional duty, and one that will help us to deliver the best for our service personnel—an aim that we all share. I echo the shadow Minister’s thanks to the Clerks and you, Mr Efford. I, too, look forward to working collegially across the Committee to ensure that we…”

“Well, they will hear it anyway.”