Speeches by Sandher-Jones.

“Before I respond to the question, I want to recognise my hon. Friend’s incredible work on widening access to bereavement leave for new parents. Having spoken to a constituent of mine, I know how much of a godsend that leave is for those parents who very tragically find themselves in that position. The armed forces occu…”

“Our work to reinvigorate the strategic reserve is absolutely vital. It is an issue that has not previously been thought about in the necessary detail. This Government are utterly committed to ensuring that the strategic reserve is ready to meet the demands that may be placed on it, including, as the hon. Lady says, wor…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for raising a very important point. Other mechanisms for giving leave are available, but I would welcome a meeting with her to discuss the issue further.”

“I thank my hon. Friend for highlighting the fantastic work that cadet groups are doing in Basingstoke. They exemplify the confidence, independence and community spirit fostered by MOD cadets across the UK. In October, we are launching the first ever National Cadets Week. Crucially, we are developing a cadets action pla…”

“I thank the hon. Member for highlighting the quite good provision in the armed forces. I think particularly of the maternity pay, which is not always the first thing on people’s minds when they join the armed forces. We offer a range of benefits, beyond pay, to our armed forces recruits when they begin a career. He is …”

“This year we have provided £480,000 to part-fund 130 Armed Forces Day community events, up from 85 last year. The national event, on 27 June, will be in Aldershot and Farnborough, celebrating and thanking our armed forces, who are doing a brilliant job keeping the UK secure at home and strong abroad. Armed Forces Day h…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for highlighting the wonderful work done by the Thongsbridge Army cadets. As he rightly says, they exemplify the wonderful things that young people can gain in the MOD cadets across the UK, as well as in his constituency. I can confirm that we are launching the first ever National Cadets Week in …”

“This Government are proud to support veterans in Rochdale. I am so pleased that we have been able to provide funding for what sounds like a fantastic Armed Forces Day event. I give a huge thank you to Adam Trennery and GTAS for the amazing work they do to support our service people and veterans. Whether it is the Armed…”

“I completely echo the sentiment of my hon. Friend over how unacceptably our LGBT service personnel were treated. As he will know, the LGBT financial recognition scheme has made significant progress, but it has not yet been completed. If he writes to me with details of his constituent, I will look into it as a matter of…”

“Sitting suspended.”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mrs Barker. I am grateful to the right hon. Member for North East Cambridgeshire (Steve Barclay) for securing today’s debate on this hugely important topic, as he rightly noted. I am a member of the Strategic Reserve myself, and I am grateful to other colleagues who have …”

“I will write to the right hon. Gentleman when we have a further update. I am not familiar with the Guardian front page that he mentioned, but I will dig it out of an archive. I am sure he will appreciate that it is from a bit before I started paying attention to these things. We agree that our reserves are a vital sour…”

“Like many in the MOD, I like a challenge. I am sure the right hon. Gentleman recognises that I very much mean what I say when I talk about the importance of the reserves and how that is linked to numbers. I want to address some of the criticisms that have come our way. At one point last year, almost 700 of our reservis…”

“We have taken a number of steps to improve trust. Crucially, the tri-service complaints unit is taking serious allegations to do with harassment, bullying and so on into the tri-service space, so that we can ensure consistency across the services and see that we are truly applying a standard that an outsider or victim …”

“That is an interesting one. I will come back to you if we have tracked that specifically.”

“I have a huge amount of respect for George Robertson; the work that he put into the strategic defence review made for a phenomenal piece of work. I think it is fair to say that we recognise the importance of the recommendations—we have accepted them, we are progressing at pace and some have already been delivered. We h…”

“I will always look at suggestions and recommendations and bottom them out. My question, without solutioneering, is what is the real focus they are trying to get after that? Are they putting forward that there are concerns about the independence of the scrutiny of our system? I think we can point to measures to ensure t…”

“I am not going to do that today. I would point out that we are making investments without the DIP being finalised. A lot of people are working very hard on it. I am sure that everyone here would recognise the importance of getting this right. It is a hugely important piece of work, and we have to get it right. It is ri…”

“If you allow me, I will start my answer by reflecting on the journey that brought me here. As you know, I served in the Armed Forces. I was an officer in the Army Intelligence Corps for a few years. I think it is worth saying up front that I had a fantastic time serving in the military—the experiences it gave me, the l…”

“That is an important point. There are two distinct stages when you have been a victim of unacceptable behaviour. There is the system that kicks in when something is reported, and I think we can point to a lot of things that we have done to improve the system when it is reported. The worry for me is when things are not …”