Speeches by Pollard.

“I will undertake the usual scrubbing to make sure it is appropriate, but I am happy to share that with the Committee.”

“That is a good question. I suspect that someone is going to be FOI-ing an AUKUS comms plan while we speak. On a broad level, AUKUS has a number of different audiences. One is in terms of our own industrial base, to encourage investments to be able to deliver those programmes. One is for our people to realise there are …”

“That is an entirely fair challenge. When we talk about visas and transfer, we normally talk about the skilled individual with the expertise. When we are deploying or transferring individuals for short periods, it is normal that they would travel on their own. If we are asking people to go to Australia for a longer peri…”

“I will let Chris come in in terms of the experience of what we are seeing today and where our people are. We have to recognise that the AUKUS programme cannot be delivered unless every nation involved with it invests in skills. We have to grow our workforce. There is a strategic disadvantage of having a system that emb…”

“At present, the Government’s position is that we do not yet see a need for an AUKUS visa. Given the amount of evidence the Committee has heard, I suspect the Committee may perhaps say something otherwise when it publishes the report. As we currently see it, we do not see an immediate need for one. It is true that, to d…”

“I will bring Chris in in terms of some of the arrangements regarding the practical implications. As we see it currently, the immigration and visa system that we have, in particular with Australia, works. For the numbers that we are looking at, it is a system that works. I am aware that the Committee has heard a number …”

“If Chris needs to clarify his words, I think that he is happy to. I think that he was referring to who is in the leadership positions on delivering the programme. We are very clear on who is in the leadership positions in delivering the programme in both Australia and the USA. In relation to the Bridge Colby report, we…”

“We await the publication of it. I have not seen what is in it, so I cannot comment on it. I know that the conversations we have with our American friends around AUKUS remain very positive. There is a very clear strategic case as to why AUKUS, both pillar 1 and pillar 2, provides operational strategic advantage to the U…”

“It is pretty standard fare for a new Government inheriting a programme as complex and big as AUKUS to undertake a review. We did when we took office last year and it was usual for the Americans, in a similar change of Government for them, to undertake a review. The President’s very clear instructions about it being ful…”

“Global leaders of the western alliance meet on a fairly regular basis. Whether they are meeting individually on AUKUS or not is perhaps a different matter. If you have seen some of the statements from President Trump saying, “Go full steam ahead on AUKUS,” after his meeting with the Australian Prime Minister and the co…”

“I asked for written confirmation. I have received written confirmation from the Chief of the General Staff and the national armaments director who was in place at the time. That note to me set out very clearly, “The objectively gathered evidence shows Ajax is demonstrably safe to operate”. Based on that evidence, I fel…”

“Having read the report and listened to what Sir Stephen said to the Committee, you have all the headlines. I do not think you should be in doubt about whether there is stuff that he did not tell you that would be of interest. It would be a matter for the Prime Minister as to when that report would be published, but I a…”

“That decision would be one for the Prime Minister, so it is probably not best for me to second-guess that. However, I can say that the value we get from that role is very clear. There is a real advantage, in terms of the co-ordination across the UK system, in having that role in place. Sir Stephen has done a really goo…”

“We are very happy with Stephen’s role, in terms of having a very clear individual able to bring people together to ask questions and span the different Departments across central Government that need to be involved in those decisions. It is sometimes tempting to believe that AUKUS is only an MoD challenge where, in fac…”

“Chris is probably best placed to give detail of some of those governance arrangements. We are certainly seeing an approach that differs in the last year and a bit to the previous approach we inherited, with a much greater drumbeat of activity between those partner nations—between ourselves, the US and Australia. The si…”

“It is unhelpful to confuse two of those together.”

“Indeed, yes. To underline this, the two projects are in very different stages. They have very different levels of complexity and particular concern about elements of it.”

“No. There are no AUKUS submarines that we have not yet revealed—”

“Elements of it are proceeding at pace, but we have also seen elements of pillar 2—which does not often get the attention that pillar 1 does—projects being built.”

“We have not yet got to the final outcome.”