Speeches by Martin.

“This crisis has laid bare the parlous state of the British military. The three main parties of government should put aside the blame game and accept that we have all played our part in getting the British military into the state that it is in now. For over a year, the Liberal Democrats have been asking for cross-party …”

“The Minister is being very generous with his time. Could he state precisely the difference between SLA and SFA that means we cannot bring them together?”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Efford. I rise to speak to amendments 3 and 4, which my hon. Friend the Member for North Devon and I have tabled. Amendment 4 is consequential on amendment 3, so I will speak about them together. What we are talking about here is a sensible proposal. Indeed, the Gov…”

“The decent homes standard, as set out in legislation, is a set of principles that can be enforced by the courts, and the courts will make the judgment. When we talk about modern facilities and services, for example, we are talking about what the courts would view as being modern and reasonable. I come back to the fact …”

“If I understand the Minister correctly, he is saying that we are going to take different routes but get to the same place. If he could give me assurances that we are going to see the same standards reflected in SFA as SLA, but they are going to be managed through separate processes, I would be happy to withdraw the ame…”

“The right hon. Gentleman is making a very good speech. Does he think that the metrics by which that bonus is judged should be made public?”

“Will the MOD publish a timeline for achieving the targets?”

“I would like to make some brief comments in support of amendment 15. We should reflect on how the divorce rate is much higher for service personnel because of the vagaries of service life and the stress under which it can put relationships. A measure like this is the least we can do to mitigate the worst excesses that …”

“That is not what new clause 1 seeks to do. It is about amending the Renters’ Rights Act so that defence housing standards cover both service family accommodation and single living accommodation, rather than applying the decent homes standard, as in the previous amendments we discussed.”

“I beg to move amendment 2, in clause 3, page 8, line 13, leave out “service family accommodation” and insert “defence housing”. This amendment requires that the framework agreement governing the new Defence Housing Service pertains to all defence housing.”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Efford. The amendment and the new clause are designed to do the same thing in two separate pieces of legislation. Essentially, this is about making sure that defence home standards cover both service family accommodation and single living accommodation. That is importa…”

“I know of what the Minister speaks. A four-bedroom house may have four servicepeople living in it as single living accommodation—the defence equivalent of a house in multiple occupation—but does that not speak to the point that SLA and SFA should be treated under the same standards?”

“In the light of the Minister’s words— I know him well from before we came into politics—I am happy to take him up on his offer, and I beg to ask leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn. Amendment proposed: 3, in clause 3, page 8, line 16, at end insert— “(6A) The standards in subsection (6) must…”

“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?”

“I thank Philip Rycroft for his review and the Secretary of State for the announcement today. I am particularly happy that we have this idea about it being retrospective and applying the measures from today because we do not know when the Bill will come through. May I encourage the Secretary of State to consider, both f…”

“On the 10th?”

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

“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…”

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

“How do you work with politicians?”