Speeches by Doughty.

“Ultimately, the actions of the European Commission are for them to take under their European-wide legislation. We have a series of legislative tools here. It is a matter for our domestic Ministers how those are developed to further our response to threats. We are co-ordinating very closely with partners around the worl…”

“That is absolutely right. Jonny can probably say a little more on that.”

“I have Jonny Hall, who is the director of our hybrid directorate.”

“I am a strong believer in freedom of speech, as are the Government. It is one of the things that makes this country great, and I am proud that we have the robust political and media landscape that we do here. I want to be really explicit: we are not talking about when somebody has tweeted something that is wrong, fake …”

“I do not want to speak for the Ministry of Defence and their budgeting. They go through their own process and you are welcome to ask those questions to the Minister for the Armed Forces. What I will say is that there is a cross-Government perspective on this and there is close working between Jonny and his colleagues i…”

“I am not going to comment on individuals or their activities; that is a matter for them to answer. What people do outside of Government, provided it is in line with their requirements under the appropriate regulations that apply to former officials and Ministers, is for them. I am not going to comment on that.”

“I think we can be. The Security Minister made that clear in his remarks to the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy last year. For example, he talked about the last general election and was clear that there were attempts at interference activity. That is very clearly documented, but equally, he said, “We j…”

“I think I am aware of that, yes.”

“Defence spending does include work on information threats already. This is a cross-Government piece of work; that is why I emphasised the co-ordination between ourselves, the Home Office, the Ministry of Defence and Cabinet Office on this. It is clear that the 5% target that we have on national security by 2035 include…”

“It meets a number of times in a year and, of course, officials meet in between that. I am very happy to provide you with more information on that. We recently published a new strategy on the Antarctic, which is very important, and the Committee is welcome to have a look at that. I was recently on board the royal resear…”

“Absolutely. In fact, I have met the Greenlandic Foreign Minister twice in the last year and a half. I regularly meet Danish counterparts; I have been in touch with my Danish counterparts in the last 24 hours. I was in Denmark recently, and one of the things we have done under this Government is establish a new working …”

“I have consistently been very clear about our position on this over many years. The Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary have been absolutely clear in the last 24 hours. I haven’t got anything further to add to that.”

“I am happy to write further to hopefully give you some more reassurances. This is a significant priority for the Foreign Secretary, myself and Ministers across Government, and we expect it to be resourced accordingly.”

“You heard very clearly what the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary said yesterday. The Foreign Secretary answered questions for, I think, nearly two hours—I was there for much of it—and made her views very clear on this. I have been clear repeatedly that Greenland’s future is a matter for the people of Greenland …”

“I go back to what I said before about our journey towards the 5% target. That is for security and defence writ large, and of course for dealing with a range of threats and challenges that we face. I would also point to the fact that we already co-ordinate very closely with those Departments through the integrated secur…”

“We do work very close together with different Departments. I will turn to Jonny, who can say a little bit more about some of that co-ordination.”

“I am not going to get ahead of the charter review and the different funding options being considered, but I am well aware of the different proposals that are out there.”

“The decisions made in the last financial year give you an idea of the scale of the importance we place on it. I would say—and I say this with huge respect for what the World Service does and must continue to do, particularly the language services and other aspects; it is remarkable—that we need to recognise that the gl…”

“I totally understand where you are coming from, Ms Anderson, but I am not going to get into specific numbers on staffing or funding, for the very reason that that gives insight to our adversaries. What I can absolutely assure you of is that this is one of the highest priorities for the Foreign Secretary and myself in t…”

“I am very happy to try to come back to you with a more specific date, but it is a very live process.”