Speeches by Murrison.

“I am privileged to be called in this debate. I start by declaring my interests as a reservist and as the author of a book called “Tommy This an’ Tommy That: The military covenant”—which is sadly no longer in print, but is available, I am told, from good charity shops. As my right hon. Friend the Member for Rayleigh and…”

“The question is surely whether victims are given a choice. At the moment, they are. The prosecutors’ protocol usually means that these cases are tried through the civilian criminal justice system. That is fine, but does the hon. Gentleman acknowledge that justice delayed is justice denied? Through the service justice s…”

“Has my right hon. Friend had a chance to look at the report published by techUK, which represents a lot of small and medium-sized companies in the defence tech sector, and seen what it has to say, objectively, about the number of jobs that are being lost in the sector, the lack of investment in the sector, the pressure…”

“I commend this Bill; overall, it does things that we all want to see and, as is the tradition with Bills of this sort, there is no great controversy between the two sides of the House. I wish it well.”

“The question is surely whether victims are given a choice. At the moment, they are. The prosecutors’ protocol usually means that these cases are tried through the civilian criminal justice system. That is fine, but does the hon. Gentleman acknowledge that justice delayed is justice denied? Through the service justice s…”

“I am not clear that there will be much cost involved in providing us with the much more granular data on numbers of reservists, regulars and other members of the three armed forces that we have at the moment. I want to preserve that, while at the same time understanding that what really matters overall is the total siz…”

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“I am concerned by the hon. Gentleman’s remarks. We have the continuous attitude survey, which does its work every year and delivers to Ministers a clear account of what is keeping people in and what is driving them away. Is he seriously proposing another set of reviews, which would add very little to what we already kn…”

“I am grateful to my right hon. Friend for giving way; he is being very indulgent. I agree with him and—with respect—not with the Minister, because my recollection from being the Minister at the time was that there was a shortage of officers to populate court martial boards. When in office, we ensured that the process w…”

“Clauses 38 and 39 hark back to 1688 and Parliament’s desire to control the size of the British Army. Of course, in those days there was not really a navy to speak of—certainly not in the way we would think of it today—and there most certainly was not an air force, so having to split the numbers down by service was not …”

“I have problems with the Liberal Democrats’ amendment 90, which implies that civilian structures are better than service ones. That simply is not the case. The service justice system is much quicker. There is nothing worse for victims than having to hang on for months, or potentially years, to have their day in court. …”

“I am grateful to my right hon. Friend for giving way; he is being very indulgent. I agree with him and—with respect—not with the Minister, because my recollection from being the Minister at the time was that there was a shortage of officers to populate court martial boards. When in office, we ensured that the process w…”

“Many hon. and right hon. Members today have talked about the service justice parts of the Bill, and in many ways those are among the most important elements of it. It is worthwhile saying that, certainly during my time as a Minister, there was difficulty populating court martial boards. The Minister gave a slightly dif…”

“On the subject of our allies, it would be useful in encouraging a strategic reserve—at the moment I am afraid it is more hypothetical than actual—to emulate perhaps the Nordics, who insist that their reservists come back for a day or two a year in order to have a kit muster, a bit of a briefing and a bit of bonding. In…”

“One area that will blight the lives of many of my right hon. Friend’s constituents as it does mine is, of course, primary care dentistry. People can move from one end of the country to another into a dental desert—Wiltshire is one of those. Does he think that there is a case for putting a duty on integrated care boards…”

“I am sure the Minister will like to pay tribute to Alabaré, which does great work for service veterans in and around my constituency. However, will he ensure that we do not give the false impression that all veterans are homeless and have mental health problems? Nothing could be further from the truth. Happily, the gre…”

“My only concern about recall for service—it is certainly not at all a philosophical one—is that it makes service more onerous. At a time when we want volunteers in our system to join the armed forces with either the regulars or the reserves, extending their recall liability from six to 18 years and from 55 to 65 years …”

“In the Bill, there is a clear distinction between commissioned and non-commissioned. I sometimes think we get too wrapped up in all that, when simplicity is usually the best course of action. It would be good to hear from the Minister why he feels that separate arrangements are needed for officers. I understand that th…”

“I am sure the Minister will like to pay tribute to Alabaré, which does great work for service veterans in and around my constituency. However, will he ensure that we do not give the false impression that all veterans are homeless and have mental health problems? Nothing could be further from the truth. Happily, the gre…”

“I thoroughly approve of removing the artificial barrier between the reserves and the regulars—I speak as a reservist and as somebody who perhaps in the past might have had a greater interest in that than I do now. The Haythornthwaite review of armed forces incentivisation is made flesh by the some of the measures in th…”