Speeches by Healey.

“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…”

“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 …”

“You could define what a national conversation might be about defence in many ways, and actually the very challenges we have seen the Prime Minister and the Government dealing with over the last fortnight are part of that. It is one of the reasons that we have seen that defence is now rising to be the third most issue o…”

“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.”

“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…”

“If you are having a national conversation, as Mr Twigg was asking about, with the whole of society about the nature of the challenges and threats that we face, which is undoubtedly the case when you look at cyber or at the concern about critical national and underseas infrastructure, then that has to be an effort that …”

“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…”

“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…”

“I refer to the military head of training.”

“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.”

“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 …”

“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 …”

“That will be for the Prime Minister with his Cabinet, and for the National Security Secretariat and the National Security adviser.”

“Mr Thomas, those were not the two lodestars that you saw driving defence decisions under the last Government. We set this out as a Government in the manifesto that you and I were elected on and we have captured it in this first-ever of its kind Strategic Defence Review published last year. It is that Strategic Defence …”

“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.”

“That is Government work in progress.”

“There have certainly been commitments that we have made in Defence that reflect exactly that.”