Speeches by Healey.

“I am afraid you will have to ask No. 10 for a record of those, I do not keep count of the number of speeches the Prime Minister makes. He probably gives half a dozen a day.”

“I can let the two representatives of the Department offer you a view on that. For my money he is bringing what he and a number of others, but he in particular, brought in the Strategic Defence Review process: a deep expertise and a degree of external challenge that we have been able to bring inside.”

“For me, it adds to the blend of different perspectives and advice that, as Secretary of State, I am able to draw on.”

“Yes, as you say, Mr Twigg, he is an exceptional person with exceptional experience. He played a major role in chairing one of the review and challenge streams of work in the SDR. Since we have been fortunate enough to bring him into the Department as a strategic adviser and head of SONAC, in old money, he is playing a …”

“First I would always argue that I have total confidence that if we had to commit our troops to fight tonight, they would do so. The observations in the SDR, reinforced by a good report that Bernard Jenkin and Chris Donnelly have authored and published today, if I may say so, reinforces that recognition that in a period…”

“Let me first commit to providing you the chapter and verse in the areas you are interested in, then take a view about whether you think we are using them effectively or sufficiently, and at that point I will do the same.”

“Okay, so there is a recommendation with a very exacting timetable over reworking and revamping certain elements of military training, and we are off the pace on that. But to my knowledge and recognition we have been determined to act where we can, make decisions where we need to and implement the SDR—including the reco…”

“I refer to the military head of training.”

“Some progress is made; there is clearly still a lot to be done. You are quite right to say this is whole of government; it has to be driven from the centre. My concern is to make sure that where defence can make the most telling and important contributions, we get on and do that. So we are doing that on reservists, on …”

“We have an annual cycle of reporting the work of the Department in full, and the SDR is not a subset of that. The SDR is essentially the framework and vision within which Defence will now make its decisions, set its priorities and deliver the programmes and the aims that it has set out. So it fundamentally sets the dir…”

“I have not had a specific formal briefing on those, Ms Baker, but those have been part of some of the discussions I have had when I have been in NATO headquarters and we have been meeting as defence Ministers, particularly on the margins of some of those meetings.”

“Reform never ends. What I will do is bring General Nesmith and the permanent secretary in in a moment because they can talk about how what we do now and how we do it is different to 18 months ago, particularly General Nesmith. For me, the purpose of this is that we have a defence system that is better able and quicker …”

“One of the top priorities of Mark Rutte when he became Secretary General of NATO, quite rightly, was a greater drive to see more joint commissioning and interoperable standards through NATO across our defence systems, something that I and we are really strongly behind. If you will allow me, Mr Chairman, I will provide …”

“They will be part of what we plan to deliver over the next decade, which is, of course, the period of the SDR.”

“It is clear we did not have the full facts in the lead-up to decisions about the initial operating capability. That IOC has been withdrawn. The Army is no longer in charge of this programme. A new senior responsible officer, SRO, is now in place. I have been clear that we must back it or scrap it. The work is being don…”

“But where there are multilateral mechanisms like the OCAR system, and we can use them and they are appropriate, we do use them. But I would just say, the principle that we do not do some big things alone is not just about using the multinational systems. If you look at the Lunna House Agreement—the biggest ever British…”

“The Government have risk registers, they have threat assessments and they publish what they can of that as a regular element. This House, this Committee and the Intelligence Security Committee play a part in exactly that sort of national conversation and that awareness-building of what we are facing.”

“We do both, Mr Norman. But you will know that the currency, if you like, the yardstick in particular for NATO members is a percentage of GDP commitment. You will also know that certainly economic growth over the last 15 years has been very sluggish, and that has a disadvantage if you are interested in and concerned abo…”

“I am pausing only because you draw the parameters so wide that it is quite difficult to know how to answer. I am perfectly prepared to reflect on that.”

“The thinking of the SDR, that sort of concern, the Prime Minister’s absolutely accurate description about how defence is now central to the thinking and the duty of this Government in a way imbues almost everything I say everywhere I go on every occasion.”