Speeches by Healey.

“I am still failing to understand your question. Chair, perhaps if you need to, you can write to me on this.”

“First, it is a Parliament-long programme. I could tell you what progress looks like after 18 months. A Chief of the Defence Staff who now commands the service chiefs for the first time. A newly defined, powerful and appointed National Armaments Director for the first time in this country. A new Military Strategic Headq…”

“That is a really big risk if we do not do our procurement better and in different ways and if we do not leverage the investments that I believe are potentially there, including foreign direct investment into the defence industry in this country, which hit record levels last year at £1.4 billion. These are all big oppor…”

“That was a headline figure. I gave about a 30% increase in Russian vessels intruding and active in wider UK waters; you would not expect me to give a detailed breakdown of those in public. The general may want to add something on the military front of that. The main point is not just that the level of Russian attacks i…”

“Yes, and because it was a strong feature of the SDR you will undoubtedly see the defence investment planning transformation to more autonomy accelerated: the creation of an Atlantic Bastion that is a combination of the traditional hard power ships with the new technology of surface and undersea autonomy. That will be p…”

“Is this the same Grant Shapps who renewed the superinjunction in May, just before the start of the general election?”

“If this Committee has its own inquiry into this area, as part of the evidence, if it is helpful, I can outline the steps that I took when, having become Defence Secretary, I was concerned about a pattern of data lapses and data breaches in this area; the steps that I took to make sure that those systems were timed up.”

“I will, but it will be the last intervention that I take.”

“I will not. I am conscious of the number of hon. Members who want to speak, and I am sure that the hon. Gentleman will want to make a contribution. The reforms are designed to be both flexible and future-proof, allowing defence to adapt to the ever changing and increasing threats. If the strategic defence review were b…”

“There is a general support for the right hon. Gentleman’s comments on both sides of the House. This Armed Forces Bill, as I will go on to say, commands all-party support, and it is a shame that we have not got all parties in this House to demonstrate that. The bond between the British people and those sworn to defend t…”

“The hon. Lady has made a detailed point very clearly—perhaps it is another bid to be a member of the Bill Committee. It is exactly the sort of issue that should be examined in detail at that point in the passage of the Bill. Madam Deputy Speaker, I am sure that you would be the first to endorse the fact that the first …”

“Giving it away.”

“On the local connection test, as with a lot of things, the previous Government talked a lot but we have got on and done a lot of those things, and the Bill takes that intent and determination several steps further. Let me move on to housing, because behind many of the men and women who serve our country are husbands, w…”

“My hon. Friend is right. The short answer is that there is record funding to support the mental health and wellbeing of veterans; there are record levels of support for veterans’ groups, with a new wave of Valour centres shortly to be announced by the Minister for Veterans and People; and there is, of course, a commitm…”

“Just as the Armed Forces Act 2001 required a degree of discussion, agreement and devolution to the devolved Governments, including in Northern Ireland, so too will this Bill. Our officials are in deep discussion with Northern Ireland Office officials. The Minister for the Armed Forces has written to Ministers in the de…”

“Like the hon. Gentleman I am deeply proud that our armed forces will take 16-year-olds and give them skills and discipline, and change the course of their career and future life. If they suffer any of the abuse and harassment that I am talking about, the tri-service complaints team will take that out of the single chai…”

“I welcome the leader of Plaid in this House welcoming the Bill and her support for the forces. She is right that the record of the Welsh nation in supporting our armed forces and recruiting some of the best of our armed forces is long and proud. She also knows that the Barnett formula has already delivered a record inc…”

“The right hon. Gentleman knows that he is speaking about the legislative provisions of a different Bill that is before the House. We will deal with that and strengthen protections for veterans. Successive Governments have failed because it has been too difficult, but, with my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State fo…”

“I beg to move, That the Bill be now read a Second time. It is a rare privilege to open this debate. This is only the second ever Labour Armed Forces Bill, yet the provenance of this legislation reaches all the way back to the Bill of Rights, and more than three centuries on, granting authority to maintain our armed for…”

“I give way to the right hon. Gentleman for the last time.”