Speeches by Martin.

“Will the shadow Minister give way?”

“Perhaps it would be helpful to explain that it is a floor, rather than a target.”

“In the same vein, we see the Bill as part of our constitutional duty, and one that will help us to deliver the best for our service personnel—an aim that we all share. I echo the shadow Minister’s thanks to the Clerks and you, Mr Efford. I, too, look forward to working collegially across the Committee to ensure that we…”

“On an Opposition day, one would expect His Majesty’s loyal Opposition to put together a cohesive critique of Government defence policy. Instead, what we have is a shopping list—a Christmas tree—that is effectively a list of the pet projects of various members of the Conservative party.”

“Well, they will hear it anyway.”

“I thank my hon. Friend for giving way. I would just like to draw—[Interruption.] Do Conservative Members want to hear this?”

“I know that the Minister will listen carefully to this question because he used to live in Tunbridge Wells. Elena is a Ukrainian woman who works in our local hospital. She has not been able to advance her career because her visa restrictions mean that she cannot study. I know that the Government do not want to give the…”

“12. If she will take steps to provide Ukrainian refugees with a route to permanent settlement.”

“Finally, do you have any brief thoughts on clause 9, on the extension of MAPPAs, or multi-agency public protection arrangements? Is it enough? Does it need to do more, or is it in the right place?”

“You are saying that there will be a reduction in headcount of one-star officers and above?”

“One final question: can you state categorically that no tanks will be withdrawn from Estonia?”

“Any idea on timescales?”

“That is really helpful.”

“I am sure you are doing a great job. I mean in the abstract, of course.”

“One of the reasons that you reduce headcount is to cut costs. The other reason is the chefs in the kitchen idea: that things are much more efficient, and decisions are made quicker, when you have fewer people sticking their oar in. We have all heard the stories of the Zoom calls with 30 people where each of them has a …”

“Thanks very much for coming today. To dive into the details, clauses 5 and 6 give new powers to the service police and courts to protect individuals from sexual harm and domestic abuse. Could you speak a little about that? Does the Bill go far enough? Does it give adequate protections? Is there more that we could do th…”

“Permanent secretary, will you answer the same question?”

“To give you an example, I may be slightly out of date, but at one point last year, my understanding was that the brigade pencilled against Estonia was 4 Brigade. You will remember that pre the accession of Finland and Sweden, we offered security guarantees to those two countries. In the interim between them saying they…”

“Provided that those promises are not all called in at the same time.”

“Air Marshal, as you would expect we have a number of commitments all over the world. Some of those will be physical commitments, such as in Estonia where we have troops, and some of them will be promises for further troops. To use Estonia as an example, we promised a follow-up of the rest of 4 Brigade to reinforce that…”