Speeches by Twigg.

“I remind Members that interventions should be brief.”

“What are the shortcomings in the covenants and what particularly has prompted you to want to update the law?”

“Unless I misunderstand you, you are basically saying that we have the covenant, but a lot of people have just ignored it for whatever reason. You are going to make them not ignore it and implement it. Is that what you are saying?”

“Order. I remind the Minister that I want to call the hon. Member for Mansfield at 5.28 pm.”

“The two Opposition spokespeople will have five minutes each. The Minister will have 10 minutes, and there will be a minute or two for the hon. Member for Mansfield (Steve Yemm) to wind up.”

“Order. I will extend the time limit to two and a half minutes. I will leave it as voluntary, but if hon. Members do not keep to it I will impose it.”

“Order. A lot of Members wish to speak and I will begin to call the Front Benchers no later than eight minutes past 5, so at the moment we are looking at roughly two minutes for each speech, but it may even be less than that. I will not waste any more time—I call Jim Shannon.”

“It needs a whole-government approach and it means a buy-in from the Cabinet down, and that has not happened so far.”

“If they do not do it to the extent that is intended? That is my question.”

“You change the law and what if they then do not do it? What sanctions are going to be put in place?”

“You are saying that they have not been implementing it.”

“If the comments from across the Atlantic this week have reminded us of anything, it is that we should always keep at the forefront of our minds the bravery of our service personnel, not least in recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan when serving alongside the US and other allies. I therefore ask my right hon. Friend…”

“But in terms of what was said about the increase in missiles?”

“I assume that there are other areas where you have challenges on security of supply and resilience.”

“Just so that we are clear, we get that there has been a challenge, but how significant is that in terms of being able to grow quickly? What are we talking about—a year, two or three? What does it mean on the ground in practical terms? That is what we are after.”

“Before I come to the issue of security clearances, you have not really said anything about materials. What is your assessment of the availability of materials that we need to grow this defence industry at the speed required? We already know and it has been reported in the press, but, from your perspective, what is the …”

“You touched on security clearance earlier. How easy is it to get, and what problems is it causing if it is not easy? Has it got worse?”

“Is it a serious problem or a moderate problem?”

“It is hampering our efforts to rearm. Is that right?”

“What are the greatest challenges to the UK defence industry in terms of resilience and security of supply, particularly in relation to materials and people? Has that got worse or better in the last two or three years?”