Speeches by Martin.

“That is an excellent point. It is very much something that the Government can do, because they understand where capital can be found and how to create the legal and regulatory ecosystem that enables these companies to thrive. Let me touch briefly on access to capital—I am thinking of slightly larger amounts than those …”

“I thank my hon. Friend for her comprehensive intervention, which speaks to exactly the issues that I will raise. The key example is DeepMind, which was the world-leading AI company. We, the Brits, failed to create the ecosystem, funding and risk-taking capital to enable it to scale fully. It was then bought by Google, …”

“It is an honour to serve under your chairship, Mr Betts. I congratulate the hon. Member for Bromley and Biggin Hill (Peter Fortune) on securing this important debate. We have heard from both sides of the Chamber that the British tech sector spreads into all our constituencies, so it concerns us all. When the Government…”

“I am paraphrasing slightly, but I was quite struck that you said that your governance mechanisms are evolving. Where are they going from and to? What is the journey that you are on?”

“That is very clear. Thank you. You have both given a good picture of the progress that has been made. Kristian has just mentioned something that he thinks will be improved by clause 12. Nina, will the Bill bring in anything else that improves the picture and drives further progress, either for victims or for the other …”

“Was that not the case before?”

“I was also struck by your championing the independence of your organisation, which is great. Some would argue that Operation Northmoor, the investigation into the Afghan Special Forces allegations, was shut down prematurely. Would you say that could not happen now, with these new governance arrangements and the indepen…”

“Thanks for coming. We will start with you guys marking your own homework. Since we established the Victim Witness Care Unit and the Defence Serious Crime Command, what progress has the service justice system made in the treatment of victims?”

“Briefly, there is going to be a representative of the families and service personnel on the board, which is excellent. What sort of things do you see them raising? How do you see the housing service responding to that?”

“David, did you want to add anything?”

“David, I assume you agree.”

“If we want to do that now, it would cost 3.5% of GDP—it is basically a 50% increase on our current defence budget. When we talk about £2 billion here or £5 billion there, that is peanuts. If we want to lead in the defence of the Euro-Atlantic area, we need an extra £30 billion for our defence budget now. The Government…”

“Okay. If I may, Natalie, you described it almost as subsidiary. You have an independent board, but it receives direction from the Ministry of Defence. We are in a rapidly changing era and geopolitical context, and operational requirements will shift—we might suddenly need to house 1,000 people over here or 10,000 over …”

“Thank you for your time today. Let us dive straight in. We are setting up this new Defence Housing Service. What is the relationship between the MOD and the Defence Housing Service? How will it be managed? How does accountability work?”

“In the annual report that is to be laid before Parliament, what will we actually be judging? What are the metrics?”

“Other Members have articulated the threat we face, so I will not repeat those points. Suffice it to say, we are in jeopardy. Global threats are on the rise, but at the same time, UK capability is decreasing. The only way that we can close that gap is to re-arm. Rearming is the only credible way to deter war—that is the…”

“Quality of housing? Speed of repairs?”

“You can imagine a world, though, where the geopolitical context changes so quickly that you do not have time to build or buy more houses. How do you take up that slack, or does it go into the rental sector?”

“This is the key point: in an election, if someone has to vote against what they do not want, it poisons our whole democratic well, because voters feel that they end up with something they have not chosen. They have made a negative choice, rather than a positive choice.”

“We have heard this argument a couple of times, and the right hon. Gentleman is making it well. He is making a grave accusation. Surely the easiest way to put this argument to bed would be for the Secretary of State to simply intervene on the right hon. Gentleman and state that auto-enrolment will be rolled out in all a…”