Speeches by Roome.

“indicated assent.”

“It was a pleasure to be a member of the Select Committee on the Armed Forces Bill, and it is an honour to speak on the Armed Forces Bill for a second time. It is to the Government’s credit that the responds to a number of the key challenges that our armed forces face in the 2020s. However, today I want to argue the cas…”

“indicated assent.”

“Following the recent challenges with deploying HMS Dragon to the middle east at short notice, will the defence readiness Bill, which was mentioned in the strategic defence review, urgently review how our Type 45 destroyers can be made more readily available to defend against aerial attacks?”

“There is nothing that you could have learned from the processes we have gone through?”

“Thousands of Afghans were found eligible under the ARAP scheme, but they have yet to be brought to the UK. For some of them, their relocation has been delayed by administrative failures—most obviously with the Triples—or because priorities shifted after the breach. What is the essence of your message to those people to…”

“In conclusion, taking it back to my original question, what could we have done better, once the super-injunction had been lifted, to communicate this to other agencies—either voluntary or other agencies—that were working on the ground in Afghanistan, to make sure that that communication got through to those who were af…”

“Minister, we have heard some pretty damning evidence from some witnesses who gave testimony earlier in our inquiry. One of them suggested that when the super-injunction was lifted, they had no communication at all. In fact, person A, who gave evidence to the Committee, said that their mobile phone had 5,000 WhatsApp me…”

“Taking you back, Minister, many Afghans complained about the self-checker. Apparently, they were complaining that it gave over-generalised statements; it did not give them any detail. That just added to the panic and concern that they had, because the self-checker was too generalised. What do you say to that?”

“In a statement to the House last July, the Secretary of State announced that the MOD had established a “dedicated Information Services Centre” for anyone who may have been affected. Yet representatives of Afghans have told us that that has failed to materialise; in practice, it offered only a very limited call-handling…”

“Professor Zysk, we visited Finland and Estonia recently. From your perspective and your research, how do Britain’s Arctic allies view the threat from Russia in the region?”

“Professor Blagden, I do not know whether you have ever heard of a chap called James Gray, but in his book, “The Arctic: What Next?”, Russians he spoke to were proud of and relatively open about their plans to reactivate or build from scratch, at enormous expense, 64 bases along the Arctic coast from Murmansk to Wrangel…”

“Professor Blagden, earlier this year, Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper visited Norway and Finland. She said that it is critical to protecting Britain and NATO, and called on NATO to step up its work in the Arctic. She said that the UK is at the forefront of Arctic security. As climate change turns the region into a hots…”

“One of my constituents in North Devon is a Royal Marines veteran who was just awarded over £2,700 in backdated universal credit, after the DWP failed to disregard his war pension from his monthly income. What can be done to ensure DWP staff understand armed forces pensions? Will the Minister assure hon. Members that th…”

“What are your thoughts on the commissioning? The Daily Mail reported that in an answer to an FOI request, the MOD stated that you were commissioned on 23 January 2025, before the policy review had been formally endorsed by the Secretary of State. It suggested that this new information meant that the MOD had misled the …”

“Did the pace or sequencing of the work place any constraints on the evidence that you were able to gather or test?”

“Carrying on with the theme of commissioning the review, when did the bulk of your work take place and when did you submit your report?”

“Given your vast experience and what you brought to the inquiry, looking back, is there anything that you would have done differently?”

“The new clause would create a deadline and shorten the timeframe. The Minister has just said that some complicated cases can take up to three months, but it is probably those cases that need the urgency of a 28-day timeframe. I know that in future it may all go digital, but at the moment we cannot confirm that, and I g…”

“I wish to press new clause 3 to a vote. Question put, That the clause be read a Second time.”