Speeches by Pollard.

“If the Foreign Office wanted to know about hostage-rescue data, a conversation would perhaps take place, but as the aircraft is solely focused on hostage rescue and using the capabilities for hostage rescue, that may not necessarily be of interest to other Government Departments—unless it is around hostage rescue, whic…”

“No, we are absolutely looking for the hostages. That is the sole purpose of those flights. That is the mission that they have been tasked with—to try to locate those hostages who continue to be held in Hamas captivity. That is their job and sole purpose. All the capabilities that the aircraft may possess are tasked wit…”

“It is difficult to go further in answering the question due to the fact that we do not routinely comment on intelligence matters. If there were additional taskings placed on those aircraft—beyond just hostage rescue—I think the ability of those aircraft to deliver those activities would be more constrained. As a result…”

“It would not normally be a thing that we would look at in relation to this specifically because the tasking and our entire mission out of RAF Akrotiri is solely for hostage search and rescue. If there were to be alternative taskings based on a wider aspect, that would require a very different approach and may affect th…”

“The question is whether the data would be held in such a format that it would be able to identify that, because effectively—without going into too much detail—instead of looking at the landscape and geographies, it is trying to detect information that would pinpoint the location of individual hostages. In that respect,…”

“That is not the purpose of those flights—”

“If we are looking at the activities of the hostage search flights, that is solely with the intention of locating hostages, so all the activities of those flights are based on hostage location—to assist in search and rescue for those hostages. That is their primary and only tasking. We do not ask them to look at additio…”

“It would not be normal for me to—the flights are solely for hostage rescue. Their intention is to use the technologies and capabilities to look at that. As a result, we do not look beyond those activities, and it would be hard for me to give out further details due to operational security.”

“We do not routinely collect information on the activities of Israeli planes, so we do not have a lot of that information that I can share.”

“Use of that would be a matter for the FCDO to assess. Routinely, the Ministry of Defence would not assess the operational use of military assets by partner nations, but the particular use and test of that would be an FCDO-led question.”

“They are seeking to do that, yes.”

“I would need to check the total number, and I can come back to the Committee, if appropriate, to release that information. As standard practice, we do not often reveal the flights or the frequency of flights. As these are unarmed aircraft, many of them will squawk and can be picked up on open source. Even though the MO…”

“We do not give out details of operational flights, as standard practice.”

“The RAF surveillance flights from RAF Akrotiri are solely for hostage rescue. They are designed to seek to identify the hostages that are being held, and then for a test to be applied to the information, if they are able to locate any, that says we will transfer that information only when we believe that the informatio…”

“I beg to move, That the Bill be read a Second time. On 22 May, the Prime Minister signed a landmark treaty with the Republic of Mauritius that guarantees the continued UK operational control of Diego Garcia for the next 99 years and beyond.”

“So soon!”

“I do not think the right hon. Gentleman wants to show me his draft deal, and there is a very good reason for that: this deal, this treaty and this Bill improve on that deal.”

“I will come back to the former Deputy Prime Minister and then I will make some progress.”

“To borrow a phrase, if the right hon. Member shows me his, I will show him mine. The whole point is that our deal is published. If he would like to go into the files and dig out his deal and publish it, we would be able to see where this deal has enhanced those protections, secured the operation of the base and got a b…”

“I said I would take one intervention from each side of the House. I have done that, so I will make some progress, but I am certain that Members will get another chance in a moment. This treaty is indispensable to keeping Britain secure at home and strong abroad. It is an expression of our unbreakable defence and intell…”