Speeches by Twigg.

“Can I give an assurance that we in the ISC are very confident that we can do an effective job on this? It is worth pointing out that we cannot be told what we can and cannot publish. That will be a matter and a decision for us. May I ask for an assurance, following on from what the Minister has just said, that there wi…”

“When we hit the point where AI can produce AI.”

“That’s what I’m saying.”

“Is Professor Malcolm Chalmers heavily involved in the SDR and the Defence Implementation Plan? He was obviously brought in as an exceptionally experienced and knowledgeable person; what has his involvement been?”

“What has he brought to the tail in terms of anything additional that the Department did not already have?”

“Sorry to interrupt. Did you say, “Define what the question was”?”

“What has he actually added? What has changed as a result of his involvement? What is different and better?”

“What of the Defence Investment Plan? Has the Department implemented all the SDR commitments due to be completed by the end of 2025?”

“Going back to the SDR, why has the MOD not agreed with the Committee’s recommendation that we should produce a publicly available annual report on the progress of the SDR implementation?”

“It would be useful to know. I am not sure whether you are going to say, “Well, I cannot tell you what the problems are with training because it would give away some sort of secret.” But I just wonder what the specific obstacles are there to completion?”

“Before I finish, you will notice that Civitas has today published an understanding of the UK’s transition to warfighting readiness, co-authored by Sir Bernard Jenkin and Chris Donnelly. There were a number of key issues, and one goes back to the CDS’s comments that we are basically not ready enough yet to deal with an …”

“Can we not play on words?”

“You used the word largely, which suggests that some have not, or some parts of it have not been completed, so could you enlighten us on that?”

“You could have said, “Yes, in full,” but you did not.”

“Yes, but again you are focusing on defence alone, which we know, but it is not about just defence: it is about the whole society government approach, going down to the finance sector, right across through industry as well. So I am just trying to get your take on where you think we are; are we some way off yet and lots …”

“Who was in that meeting?”

“Were you surprised at the length of time that this went on and Parliament did not know about it?”

“Knowing what you know now, are you surprised that Parliament was not involved?”

“We were told that initially, “We were protecting lives, and that is why you were not told.” That was the original—”

“Who took the decision not to do that?”