Speeches by Jopp.

“I was struck earlier when you said, “There are a million areas that I would love to get into”. I just remind you of that.”

“I have a certain amount of sympathy for the hon. Member for Widnes and Halewood (Derek Twigg), whom the Minister slightly fobbed off with his answer. Now that he has had a chance to calm down and check his notes, I will ask the question again on the hon. Member’s behalf: what have the Government done to advance the cas…”

“I do not know whether the Secretary of State has had a moment to read The Times this morning, but it reports that the Chancellor is using a new AI tool to answer her emails. It is 70% accurate and is “performing as good or better than existing processes”, which does not say a great deal for the ability of the Chancello…”

“We have an anomalous situation in Spelthorne whereby someone can get six London red buses on an Oyster card, but they cannot get the train out to the stations at the end of the line. Major employers, such as BP and Shepperton Studios, are sending buses up the line to bring down those people who cannot use an Oyster car…”

“When the Secretary of State appeared at the Defence Committee recently, he was sitting alongside his permanent secretary when the permanent secretary announced that it was his aspiration to reduce the number of MOD civil servants by 10% within this Parliament. Does the Secretary of State recognise and welcome that aspi…”

“The people of Spelthorne have been holding their breath during this flood season. Obviously, prevention is better than cure. Can the Minister update us on the River Thames scheme and on when a decision about whether it will go ahead and when will be taken?”

“Yesterday I spoke to an elderly gentleman who was taking himself off to his local pharmacy to receive the RSV jab, but because he was over 80 he was going to pay more than £200 for it. Will the Minister please tell us how much the RSV jab costs the Department when it is free for 75 to 80-year-olds, and how much guidanc…”

“I am grateful to the hon. Member for giving way, particularly on the subject of growth. He, like me, is an avid reader of the Labour party manifesto, so he knows that sustained economic growth is the first mission of this Government. I think we all agree on the point that sustained economic growth is a really good thin…”

“Will the hon. Member give way?”

“Can I just get the sequencing clear? You described that you were into the tendering process for the replacement of Capita across all three services and the Government have subsequently announced these, as some would say, eye-watering new targets in terms of the number of days before you get a place in training. Are you…”

“Building on that theme, we had the review team in and I thought—slightly disappointingly, from my point of view—they acknowledged that their riding instructions are 2.5% and that is it. The idea that it was Treasury-led rather than threat-based was something that we had a discussion about. To a certain extent, I though…”

“General, just picking up on the Pumas in Brunei and Cyprus, a couple of weeks ago the Secretary of State announced that that was ending. You have said that he is being briefed this week on options to fill that capability gap. Presumably that means that you know that all those options are cheaper than Puma because, othe…”

“If the commissioner were to come to the Secretary of State and say that they would like members of the armed forces seconded permanently to their staff, what would the Secretary of State’s reaction be?”

“If that strategy does not work or if it is seen to be failing, will the Minister make it clear whether that is something that the Armed Forces Commissioner could look at? As the Bill is currently drafted, they would not be allowed to do that.”

“I thank the hon. Member for his intervention—it is almost as if he read my speech. I was going to stay on my German theme and say that one person who interpreted that general definition of welfare was another German: General Erwin Rommel. He said that the best form of welfare is better training, because more training m…”

“It occurs to me that, prior to taking the oath, there is a body of people who are prospective recruits. They have a material impact on morale, because if they take months and months to get through the pipeline to become recruits, the wastage rate increases and fewer people turn up in training, which means that the arme…”

“Members of the Committee will be aware that line 35 on page 2 defines a general welfare matter using its own terms; it says that a general welfare matter is a matter to do with welfare. Thinking back to when we all did English GCSE—or O-level, in the case of some of us—we know that using terms to define themselves is a…”

“I do not think it is, actually. This is important, because as written—without the amendment—the provision refers to a matter that “arises in connection with ongoing service of persons subject to service law”. As soon as someone is killed, therefore, they are not within the purview of the Armed Forces Commissioner and n…”

“There is something of a twilight zone. We heard from Colonel Darren Doherty on Tuesday that he had done his 38 years’ service and was now entering a period of regular reserved service, which, as the Minister knows, is a residual requirement to answer the call to arms. I have checked with the hon. Member for Epsom and E…”

“The Labour party has been in charge in Wales for 25 years. The percentage of patients in Wales waiting more than a year for treatment is 22.5%, compared with 4% in England. Why, in 25 years of being in charge, have you not reformed the NHS in Wales and brought down waiting lists?”