Speeches by Pollard.

“The Secretary of State and I are big fans of having defence unicorns. The technology space, and drones in particular, would be one of those areas where I would look to see some of those firms grow. There are a number of firms with enormous growth potential, both in the UK and in the international markets, across the di…”

“Absolutely, yes. I know I am going back to this, but we do not yet know the cause of what happened to those vehicles that has created the problems that our soldiers have experienced. I want to get on top of what the actual problem was. Was it a maintenance issue? Was it a design problem? Was it an issue with the platfo…”

“We are already seeing large amounts of investment in the drone autonomy sector from UK businesses and from foreign direct investment into the UK. There are a number of locations where we are seeing a real investment focus on that. As a Plymouth MP, I would say that there is lots of marine autonomy in Plymouth. We are a…”

“No, I do not agree with that assessment.”

“About a fortnight ago, Defence Ministers opened two drone factories in the UK, one in Plymouth with Helsing and another one in Swindon on the back of having opened a drone factory in Swindon only a few months previously. The SDR set out very clearly that we want to see more investment in autonomy and allocated a much l…”

“We want it and we welcome it because it speaks to the wider point about telling the story about defence. The Secretary of State has set out his ambition to publish it. We are working on it at pace. In fact, two of the three of us, if we were not in front of your Committee, would be in meetings about the DIP trying to a…”

“I want to understand what happened first.”

“When the DIP is published, I would expect considerable parliamentary scrutiny.”

“The defence investment plan is being worked on currently. We are still projected to publish it shortly. We are reaching the final stages of that work at the moment.”

“There will be three investigations into it. The Defence Accident Investigation Branch will publish in the usual way, but I will set expectations that that will probably take some time because it will want to be thorough, and we would expect it to be thorough. The British Army’s investigation is the preliminary findings…”

“I expect everyone in the MoD, be they in uniform or in civilian roles, to be providing good, accurate and timely advice. I expect that on the Ajax programme, just as much as I expect it on anything to do with AUKUS that we will discuss shortly. Once we have seen what the preliminary results are into what happened on Ex…”

“The defence review set out the ambition quite clearly: up to 12 submarines. To deliver those 12, a number of things have to be true. We have to improve the speed of production in Barrow. A new submarine needs to be emerging every 18 months. That can only happen if we get the skills situation right, and we can only get …”

“No, it is entirely realistic for us to do so. It is in the planning assumption for the Royal Navy that we will participate in the rotational forces. It is key to the delivery of the AUKUS programme that we do so. There is advantage for us, but we are maintaining our ability to deliver the tasks that are asked of our su…”

“Until I see the findings of the preliminary report into what happened, I do not want to make a judgment as to the process that led up to it, because I want to see what happened in the first instance. It is very clear in the direction that we have given within the Department that safety is our top priority. We would not…”

“Yes, it is realistic.”

“I entirely understand. I am not allowed to comment on submarine availability, but I entirely understand the concern you are raising. Secondly, why contribute to the rotational forces in Australia? It is directly because the optimal path for delivery of AUKUS sees the Australians gaining benefits from having the ability…”

“First, it is one year away because it is a 2026 rotation that we are aiming for. Secondly, I would answer that in two parts. First, I cannot comment on submarine availability, although the Committee will no doubt be able to see lots of that online.”

“At the risk of nodding and saying yes, I will say yes. Let me take the challenge in two parts. If we provide to the Committee our assessment of the key suppliers and the ones that we can put in the public domain, we will write to the Committee with that information. Secondly—you have correctly identified one of my frus…”

“If I were to look at the photo of the Defence Secretary, the Foreign Secretary and their Australian equivalents, including the Prime Minister, on their recent trip to Australia, where the Carrier Strike Group was docked in Darwin as part of its global deployments, I would see a different but similar image showing the U…”

“As a Government, we are increasing our communications on defence. Defence has been in the news more in the last year for announcements than it has been for many years. That partly reflects the threats that we are facing, but it also reflects a Government with more to say on defence, in terms of how we are reforming Dde…”