Speeches by Thomas.

“I look forward to hearing from Sir Chris, but what you said is interesting. It is the Government of the day who are held accountable, but, in 10 years’ time, the Government of the day here and anywhere else will be being, as you say, held accountable for stuff that either is or is not happening now. That is the way of …”

“I guess that what I am driving at is that we have just discussed the abject failure of the Ajax programme thus far in the UK. You were quoted in the Financial Times as saying that you were advised by everyone, from the top brass down to the people working on the platform themselves, that it was safe on 5 November. Thre…”

“We had the news earlier this week from Australia that it is conducting its own overhaul of defence, not long after the UK is under way with defence reform here. It put out a press release saying that it will have a new national armaments director, using the same language as we have here, who will report directly to its…”

“Nine months after the announcement of defence reform and UKDI, it would be good to have an idea, not just for me but for industry, which is desperate for a clear idea about what the MoD wants it to do, what it wants it to invest in and what capabilities it wants. That would be very useful.”

“It travels from frontline command, from MSHQ to NAD Group and then down to UKDI.”

“It is not MSHQ.”

“UKDI will have a leader, who is not currently there. We do not know how senior they will be, but we do know they will report directly to the National Armaments Director.”

“It will be direct to the NAD.”

“Who will they report to, whoever that leader is?”

“Almost a year after the defence reform was announced, we still do not know how senior the leader of UK Defence Innovation will be.”

“It goes to something in NAD Group and then down to UKDI as part of NAD Group. That is clear. Who is going to run UKDI?”

“How senior will that leader be in terms of staff?”

“Team Plymouth is now jointly led by Defence Minister Lord Coaker and MHCLG Minister Miatta Fahnbulleh MP—we were able to announce that a couple of weeks ago—so we have joint sponsorship from both those Government Departments.”

“I am a Plymouth MP, and was very proud to host the launch of Team Plymouth a couple of weeks ago here in Parliament. It is not a new concept, clearly; we had the Growth Alliance Plymouth before. Work has been going on for years to get the city ready for the increased workforce demands that are coming, and we have been …”

“Thank you.”

“Working groups—yes.”

“Whose whole job is Team Plymouth.”

“Yes. Speaking frankly, I think that a lot of people around Team Plymouth wanted that to happen, and it has not happened. You mentioned governance and roles, and Peter alluded to bringing people into the tent, such as local MPs and the NHS—we have a massive hospital in Plymouth. But we do not have a CEO of Team Plymouth…”

“The SRO is in the MoD, yes.”

“There is an interesting balance there, which we are grateful for. Dr Curtis, you spoke about space earlier. In the context of what Matthew mentioned about a new look at our relationship with America, it was reported over the last week—I don’t know whether it is true—that the MoD has stopped sharing intelligence in the …”