Speeches by Glen.

“Could I ask you, Mr Warner, about the achievability of this amount of money? As I understand it, at the moment the Chancellor has indicated that she will offer £10 billion over four years against a £28 billion equipment shortfall. From an IFS perspective, what structural spending reductions or revenue-raising measures …”

“They are not matched by meaningful commitments, and they are not likely to be.”

“As politicians, we put a lot of store in 3% or 3.5%. “When is it going to be 3%?” You are saying that, though that is linked to our international commitments with NATO, any detail is not really particularly relevant beyond the next few years.”

“I understand what the DIP needs to do in terms of giving specificity to the capabilities, but I am trying to get at what the distribution in years 1, 2 and 3 looks like to be credible for industry to absorb that and make progress towards capability fulfilment.”

“Will we get that here?”

“How do we as a Committee hold any Government to account in terms of making the goal real so that your expectations can be met?”

“I do not understand what you are really asking for, then. You want certainty in the increase, but you cannot tell me the profile of what the increments need to look like year by year, over one year, two years or three years.”

“Before we get into that, what does that look like?”

“Yes, and the profile per year. You have said you do not want it backloaded. What I am trying to get at is how much they would have to spend each year going forward to be credible for the industry.”

“I just want to get to the bottom of the question. What depiction of spending from the Government over the coming years would give credibility to their stated intent to get to 3.5%? What does that look like in five weeks’ time?”

“I just want to discuss the ramping up of defence spending, what it implies and how it gains credibility. The Government said they want to get to 3.5% by 2035, and we are at 2.5% or 2.6% now. Treasury, and most Governments, usually do three or four-year spending review cycles. If the Government say, “It is going to be 3…”

“Do you agree with that, Mr Stanley and Mr Gardner?”

“Can I just ask one other question on this subject? When you look at the different plans and the different changes to thresholds and rates and so on, given that all Governments have finite resources, where would you recommend that this Committee look in terms of the worst changes in terms and conditions and regarding wh…”

“What do you think about students’ understanding of the terms and conditions and the changes to them? Do you survey students at different stages in their journey through this process, and do you have any evidence about what they think about what has happened?”

“I want to address the issue of changing terms and conditions. The Teaching and Higher Education Act 1998 essentially gives freedom to any future Government to change the terms and conditions of the loan. Mr Stanley, what do you think about that? What do students feel about it in terms of the changes that have happened—…”

“Mr Whelton, do you have any comments on this from the point of view of intergenerational fairness?”

“And don’t pay much income tax.”

“In reality, if somebody is in that position where essentially they are earning more money, so they have to pay more money back, it affects their behaviour, and it has an impact on the economy, including productivity. Do you have any observations about that, or is that just a relatively small cohort of the overall group…”

“I want to focus on the marginal tax rates that effectively prevail for some of these graduates, because the evidence suggests that what we are actually doing is leaving some in their 20s and 30s with some of the highest effective marginal tax rates. Ms Ogden, would you set the scene for discussion on this subject? What…”

“May I ask you to respond to that, Sir Philip? I think Ms Stern has given a very good example of the change in perception of a course. When you make this judgment of unproductive and productive, how do you take account of the unpredictability of the evolving needs of the economy, but also do justice to the fact that you…”