Maria Eagle
MP for Liverpool Garston · Labour · United Kingdom
“Of course, I recognise, as do many colleagues who have spoken in the debate, that the reasoning behind the sentence reduction for early guilty pleas—a principle that is a long-established part of our justice system—is that it saves courts time, reduces costs and can spare victims some of the trauma of having to give evidence, which can be…”
House of Commons19 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“When Parliament created the offence of controlling or coercive behaviour, which was a breakthrough in itself—it had not been recognised in law before—it recognised an important truth: domestic abuse is not always physical. It can be psychological, emotional and deeply insidious.”
House of Commons19 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“This petition, on what is known by many supporters as Paris’s law, reflects a growing concern that our justice system must do more to recognise the unique nature of coercive control and its ongoing impact on victims; it is not something that comes and goes.”
House of Commons19 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Member for St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire (Ian Sollom), which my hon. Friend the Member for Forest of Dean (Matt Bishop) also spoke about from his experiences as a police officer: victims can spend months or years preparing themselves for trial, gathering evidence, reliving traumatic experiences, anticipating having to give evidence in c…”
House of Commons19 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I also pay tribute to Hayley’s mother Ruth Yates, who has campaigned tirelessly since Hayley’s untimely death for answers, accountability and change. She has worked relentlessly so that Hayley’s story could be heard, and to ensure that changes are made so that nobody else has to go through what Hayley did.”
House of Commons19 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“For many victims, that can feel like an extension of the very behaviour that they have sometimes endured for years and for which the justice system is seeking to hold that person to account. The uncertainty, delay and emotional toll can all compound the harm caused by the abuse.”
House of Commons19 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
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“We are not in times when we can get away with taking 10 years to produce something that is not quite what we wanted in the first place. There has been too much of that, and that is why we are segmenting our acquisition budget. The NAD will be in charge of delivering the capabilities that all our services need in much shorter timescales. As for drones and that kind of capability, we are trying to get to contract within three months. By standing up UK Defence Innovation with a ringfenced budget of £400 million this year, and 10% of our investment budget in future, we aim to ensure that there is the money to innovate fast and get lethality into the hands of our warfighters faster. That is essential. We need to shorten the time it takes to get there, even for nuclear submarines.”
House of Commons25 June 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“They have their equipment budgets and top-level budgets, and know what they want, and they never really talk to each other across services. As the hon. Gentleman said, a programme might get started because people think that they want the equipment, and it is a 10-year programme that is not funded right to the end, so money gets wasted. We have to do better. One way we will do better is by having much clearer accountability. The NAD is a tremendously important figure in that. We will also make sure that we shorten our acquisition timescales. We cannot just have CADMID— concept, assessment, demonstration, manufacture, in service and disposal—for everything, with pre-contract phases and so on. We cannot do that any longer.”
House of Commons25 June 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“One of the problems with our procurement and acquisition system—this was mentioned, including by those who have perhaps experienced it in their professional life, whether in the forces or in the Department—is that it is not fit for purpose when it comes to doing things quickly and delivering what it says it will. The defence reform agenda is not about reorganising for the sake of it. That is not what we ought to be doing. Were the system in perfect order, we would not be reforming it. This reform is about ensuring that the national armaments director is accountable to Ministers and the services for delivering the equipment that the services need in a timely fashion, because that is not what happens now. Currently, each service goes off on frolics of their own.”
House of Commons25 June 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“He had some particular requests about Ajax—we all know that notorious name—including when the 180 vehicles would be delivered. The initial operating capability of Ajax will be by December 2025; I am hoping it might be sooner, but as far as I am aware, that commitment is on track and at least 180 vehicles will be delivered by that time. Morpheus and the broader land environment tactical communications and information systems programme has been a troubled programme in some respects. It is a £6.5 billion, 10-year programme. It involves lots of things fitting together, as the hon. Gentleman will recall. We are trying to make sure that the programme delivers what it is supposed to deliver. Some of the programmes we have inherited have troubled histories. That is one of the reasons why we are committed to defence reform.”
House of Commons25 June 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“We will also continue to report, as ever, and I have no doubt that we will get to 3% in the next Parliament and that there will be a trajectory towards 5% overall, with the 1.5% security and resilience spending. Instead of making allegations about that commitment being smoke and mirrors, it would be better for the Opposition to say that they would do the same if they were in Government. If they did so, we would have a proper consensus to give industry certainty that this is what we are committed to do as a nation. I welcome the fact that the Liberal Democrats said that they would commit themselves to that goal. I look forward to engaging with the Chairman of the Select Committee on the recommendations in the report, and I intend to make sure he is satisfied by what we come back with.”
House of Commons25 June 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I mean, the right hon. Gentleman has only just walked in. If he wants to start heckling me, I am happy to have a discussion with him in the Tea Room afterwards, but there is no point in him heckling me from a sedentary position when he has not taken part in the debate. [ Interruption. ] It is very kind of the right hon. Gentleman to allow me to continue my speech. I am trying to answer questions posed by the Chairman of the Select Committee, whose debate this is. We know that NATO will—as it usually does—check each nation’s spending against its expectations on a yearly basis, so that will be an obvious way in which we can see progress being made towards our goal.”
House of Commons25 June 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I know that the Select Committee will help the Government to do that, and I am determined to ensure that we do it. That is what defence reform means.”
House of Commons25 June 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I am not making any announcements today, but I have heard what the hon. Member said, and I want these matters dealt with more swiftly than in the past. He needs to listen out, because the announcement will come in due course. We are undertaking this defence reform to make a real difference to acquisition and a real improvement to our procurement, to stop wasting money, and to get things into the hands of our warfighters faster. We can argue about money, as the hon. Member for South Suffolk (James Cartlidge) likes to, but we must do better with the money that we receive, because the money allocated to defence could be spent on other things—on hospitals, schools, and helping people with their needs at home. We all accept that we have to show the public—the voters—that we are spending the money in a way that provides us with maximum value.”
House of Commons25 June 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“What the hon. Gentleman said at the beginning of his speech was very simple, I must say. I understand the point that he has made, although I have not seen the answers to which he has referred, so I shall have to take his point away. I am happy to discuss it with him on another occasion, but I cannot give him an answer today.”
House of Commons25 June 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“A great deal of effort is already being made. Both the Minister for Veterans and People and the Minister for the Armed Forces are leading a number of efforts to improve recruitment and retention. As the House will know, in a “flow and stock” situation, it takes time to turn around a long-standing trend, and unfortunately the last Government did not meet the recruitment targets for the armed forces in any one of their 14 years. This is like turning around a supertanker. We have already made some reforms to try to speed up the time that it takes to recruit a young person who wants to join the forces, and that will start to show results in due course.”
House of Commons25 June 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I am conscious that I am probably overusing my time, so I do not want to give way any more. I apologise, but there is another debate to come. All of us in the House essentially understand the importance of increasing our defence spending in a way that is effective and gives us good value for money, so that we can boost the capacity of our armed forces to defend the nation and deter potential adversaries. I think we are all on the same page in that regard, and that is a good way for me to end my speech. I thank all Members for taking part.”
House of Commons25 June 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“It is perhaps not surprising that there is amity across the Chamber. There has been no disagreement about how important these memorials are to local communities and the families of those commemorated upon them—not just the immediate family, but through generations. There is also educational value in making sure that the stories of those commemorated on them are told to subsequent generations. The example that my hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow West (Patricia Ferguson) gave about a local school making sure that a lost memorial is remembered, even though it is 100 years since it was erected, is quite telling about the powerful nature of these stories, which are intergenerational and should go forward in time.”
House of Commons24 June 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I can only say that I am glad that the damage has been repaired. Although memorials are very rarely paid for by the Ministry of Defence or by the state, there is a scheme run by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport that provides for some contribution towards repairs if a memorial is vandalised, which would equate to the VAT. It would enable some contribution from Government, with all the proper forms being filled in. I think the deadline for this year is 30 June, so if that has not been applied for already, and it is helpful, then my hon. Friend needs to get her skates on and move fast. It is quite clear across parties and from all Members who have spoken today the extent to which local Members of Parliament involve themselves in making sure that their memorials are known about and raised in the House.”
House of Commons24 June 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“It is therefore quite understandable that the events to commemorate the anniversary are so extensive and involve so many people—perhaps 8,000. I do not know if it is 8,000 people who have done a poppy each, or 4,000 who have done two each, but clearly quite a lot of people have knitted the poppies that will set a striking backdrop to the commemorations. Perhaps it is not surprising the extent to which her local community cares about that memorial, because of the way in which it came to be in the first place, arising at the end of the first world war, out of the grief of a rich member of society who lost his only son and therefore dedicated time and money thereafter to providing the memorial, the art galleries and, later on, the library. It is unbelievable to me that memorials can be vandalised as my hon. Friend’s has been.”
House of Commons24 June 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“They step forward, as is clear in today’s debate, from every corner of our United Kingdom—every hamlet, every village, every town, and every city, to serve with courage, commitment and resilience, separated from their loved ones and often in difficult and dangerous situations. It is no surprise, therefore, that communities left behind, and who have lost loved ones to conflicts that we have been involved in over the years, seek thereafter to commemorate and to do so in perpetuity to the extent that they can. The story that my hon. Friend the Member for Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy told about her war memorial reaching its 100th anniversary today could be replicated around the country, but it is unique in that it has not only an art gallery and community space, but a library attached. It is clearly at the very heart of her community.”
House of Commons24 June 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stuart. It is quite clear from the debate today that many Members here, and probably many who have not made it to the debate, could speak at length about the memorials in their own constituencies. I congratulate and thank my hon. Friend for Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy (Melanie Ward) on securing the debate and highlighting the importance of war memorials in Britain, particularly in this armed forces week, when many of our minds turn to remembering the service of people in our armed forces. That includes, of course, remembering those who have sacrificed for our futures, their own. The first duty of every Government is to protect its people, but it can only do so by asking men and women of our armed forces to do extraordinary things.”
House of Commons24 June 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“If there are 1,500 names on her memorial, she will not do all of them, but it will none the less be a powerful reading. Reading out each name individually will take a lot of time, and it is a powerful indication of quite how many people were lost. It will be one of the most powerful parts of the commemorations. She highlighted what will happen in her constituency and I congratulate her.”
House of Commons24 June 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Member for New Forest East (Sir Julian Lewis) has just mentioned them, so I will not repeat them. The general point is that, apart from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, the funding of memorials has overwhelmingly come from public individuals and organisations. That is why they survive—they are part of our communities, they are loved by our communities and they are supported by our communities. That is an important part of their power—they are seen as something that is done by local people, for local people, to commemorate local people. Once again, I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy. I wish her very well with the commemorations. It will be hard to read the names out, so I particularly wish her well with that.”
House of Commons24 June 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Member for Rayleigh and Wickford also referenced the work of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, which is unsung but extremely valuable and very much appreciated. On the point made by my hon. Friend the Member for Thurrock (Jen Craft), my understanding is that the Commonwealth War Graves Commission does include women. I am not saying that every war memorial around the country includes women—that clearly is not the case—but the Commonwealth War Graves Commission does, as I understand it. However, her point that there are many forgotten people who lost their lives and are not on the memorials is an important one. I have some numbers on those who have been commemorated who were lost at sea—the merchant sailors as well as the naval personnel—but the right hon.”
House of Commons24 June 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The right hon. Gentleman makes an excellent point. For families left behind—increasingly as time passes, it seems to me—the lack of a grave or something to mark an individual’s sacrifice is felt more deeply. It is therefore extremely understandable that there have been memorials erected latterly. It is completely correct and, I think, one of the values of the National Memorial Arboretum. The right hon. Member for Rayleigh and Wickford (Mr Francois) referenced his visits there, and I am sure that other colleagues have attended various events there. It is important to have a place in the middle of the country, which is where the Arboretum is, that can be attended and where there are a number of memorials to make sure that there is somewhere for everyone who has lost someone to go and contemplate that loss. The right hon.”
House of Commons24 June 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“This Government are making defence an engine for growth across the UK. Our forthcoming defence industrial strategy will grow a faster, more integrated, more innovative and resilient defence sector. Prioritising UK-based firms for Government investment will drive economic growth, boost British jobs and strengthen national security. We are sending a signal to the market and our adversaries: with a strong UK defence sector, we will make Britain secure at home and strong abroad.”
House of Commons19 May 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I thank my hon. Friend for that question. We are delivering for defence across all the nations and regions. The Clyde infrastructure programme—a £1.8 billion programme—will create skilled jobs in the west of Scotland over the next 40 years, while delivering our triple lock commitment on keeping the continuous at-sea deterrent. I recently opened the Rolls-Royce submarines office in Glasgow, which aims to access skilled talent pools in his area to support Dreadnought and AUKUS-class boats. As he said, this all goes to show that defence is an engine for growth.”
House of Commons19 May 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I do agree with my hon. Friend, because under the previous Government the average time to contract was six years, and only two out of the 49 major projects they oversaw were on time and on budget. Our procurement reforms will speed up and improve delivery to the frontline, and thus boost our defence and security.”
House of Commons19 May 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“My hon. Friend makes a good point. We are delivering for defence by putting people at the heart of our defence plans. The new consumer charter for families in military homes will include improved repairs, a named housing officer for every family, and a better and clearer complaints process. I am aware of the issues he raises about pest control at RAF Wittering. This has been raised with Amey, the contractor that has the maintenance contract there, and I will expect to see an improvement.”
House of Commons19 May 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The hon. Gentleman has set out some troop movement issues. We are moving to a lighter formation, but there is no reason why we cannot meet him and explain the situation in full, and I am very happy to volunteer my hon. Friend the Minister for the Armed Forces to do so.”
House of Commons19 May 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Mr Speaker, I was waiting to hear whether the hon. Lady had got the wrong question, but she fitted it in and it was in order, so I congratulate her on that. We are co-operating across different European arrangements, and our own, to ensure we can supply Ukraine. We in the UK have stepped up, spending £4.5 billion this year. We co-ordinate a lot of the UK and European-wide efforts to ensure that Ukraine can stand up to the aggression it still faces from Russia, no matter what President Putin or anybody else has to say about it.”
House of Commons19 May 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The landmark agreement secured today will complement our bilateral partnerships with European countries. It will pave the way for UK defence industries to participate in EU defence programmes, supporting thousands of British jobs, boosting growth and making our continent safer.”
House of Commons19 May 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The UK and the EU will use this opportunity to explore closer collaboration across defence industrial initiatives in a way that will support economic growth and jobs on both sides, and help to prevent fragmentation across our shared industrial base. We can now go on to discuss a bilateral agreement to facilitate participation in EU schemes such as ReArm and SAFE—Security Action for Europe.”
House of Commons19 May 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Any financial commitment that has to be made will be subject to the further discussions that I have just set out. Today’s agreement enables us to discuss bilaterally what arrangements we can make to have access to those programmes.”
House of Commons19 May 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“We are delivering for defence by putting people at the heart of our defence plans. We have secured a deal to buy back 36,000 military homes to improve housing for forces families and save taxpayers £600,000 a day in rent. Our new consumer charter means that families will have a named housing officer, improved repairs and a clearer, shorter complaints process. Our forthcoming defence housing strategy will set out plans to undertake a generational review of our properties.”
House of Commons19 May 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I agree with my hon. Friend’s analysis of the impact of poor housing. We have regained control of 2,793 of the 3,221 service family accommodation units in Yorkshire and Humber previously owned by Annington, after a landmark deal earlier this year. As well as saving taxpayers rent that can be recycled into improvements, that enables us to plan a once-in-a-generation improvement of service family homes. The detailed plans will be set out in the defence housing strategy later this year.”
House of Commons19 May 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I will certainly do that. Programme Euston is a £2 billion investment aiming to deliver resilient out-of-water engineering capability at His Majesty’s naval base Clyde by the early 2030s. Market engagement is under way, but it is too early for me to let my hon. Friend know of any kind of outcome. However, I recognise the skills and experience at Methil, and I welcome the certainty that Navantia UK’s purchase of Harland and Wolff has brought to that facility. I look forward to seeing any bids that come in.”
House of Commons19 May 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I thank my hon. Friend for her welcome for that investment in her constituency. We have to do more to improve housing for military families, including in Suffolk Coastal. The defence housing strategy work includes an extensive review of our entire service family accommodation portfolio to determine how we will use our properties. It will report later this year; she will then know more.”
House of Commons19 May 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I agree with my hon. Friend: we need to do more to support British defence manufacturing, and we are doing more by reforming procurement and prioritising UK-based businesses for the work that we can give them.”
House of Commons19 May 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I have met representatives of Aeralis on a number of occasions, as have my senior officials. The MOD has provided the company with considerable support as it develops its concept of a modular aircraft with digital design. The Department remains engaged with Aeralis, and with the sector as a whole, to seek a solution that will generate the combat air pilots of the future. We have begun considering what aircraft will replace the Hawk fast jet trainer, which is currently in operation in the Royal Air Force.”
House of Commons19 May 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I hope that, between all of us, we get into a position to boost our defence industries in a way that not only increases our defence and security, and our ability to deter our potential adversaries and, if needs be, make sure that our warfighters are properly equipped, but leads to regional growth and job opportunities, real lives and careers for our young people and our older people who work in the defence industries and in dual-use technologies, and also enables us to grow our economy as a whole, nationally. I know that if we get this right and harness the skills, capabilities, commitment, good sense and effort of people who work in the defence industries, we will be in a much, much better place. It is a win-win for all of us—not only for my hon. Friends, but for the north-east and for the nation as a whole. Question put and agreed to.”
House of Commons13 May 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I know that my hon. Friends, who are here in numbers today to represent the north-east, will make sure that I know what the opportunities are in the north-east and what more can be done, and I will rely on them to do that. I cannot get out of the office as much as I might like, so I rely on right hon. and hon. Members to let me know what is going on, what the issues are and what the problems are.”
House of Commons13 May 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“That is not something that industry has had in the past, which is something that it has always complained about, telling us, “We need a demand signal. We’re not going to invest until we know that you really want this long term.” I think we will have the kind of ecosystem and opportunities that small firms and large firms in the north-east, in the constituencies of my hon. Friends who are here today, will be able to take advantage of to grow and bring forth their agility, ideas, energy, and patriotism. As my hon. Friend the Member for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland said, many people in the north-east who work in the defence industry are very proud of doing so and really do want to support our country in its defence and security needs. They will be that much more motivated because there will be more opportunities.”
House of Commons13 May 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Friends that the efforts we have put into supporting Ukraine show that we can do things faster, we can procure better, and we can ensure that we get capability into the hands of warfighters who desperately need it on a much faster timescale than we have done traditionally. The people who have done that are the same people in the MOD who have traditionally done the slower, more long-term, more stately work. It is just about risk appetite and about what we want them to do. With the strategic defence review publication coming up shortly, in due course, and with the defence industrial strategy also to be published—not at the same time, but not too far away from that—we ought to have an obvious and transparent framework, backed by resources that are guaranteed to be increasing into the future.”
House of Commons13 May 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I therefore think the prospect is good for our small and innovative firms. When I go to trade fairs, go on constituency visits and do roundtables to find out what industry wants, I meet many of these small firms from around the country, including the north-east—I have met some on a couple of occasions in the north-east. Many of them say the same thing: “We need a way in. We need to know what you are doing, and what you want and when you want it. And we need to be able to engage faster and more effectively.” I hope that we will be able to do that. It is going to require wholesale reorganisation, and us to learn how to do things differently, but I will just say to this Chamber and to my hon.”
House of Commons13 May 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Friend the Member for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland will recall that the Prime Minister announced the formation of an SME hub, which ought to enable small firms to plug into the available opportunities and help them to know where to get finance, which is a problem for small firms. We need a clearer idea of what the capabilities are to enable them to plug their ideas and their dual-use technology into the opportunities that are available. The establishment announced by the Chancellor of UK Defence Innovation, with a £400 million ringfenced budget this year, which has already started, means that there is more money available for dealing with innovative and novel technologies. The Chancellor also committed us to making sure that there is a ringfenced budget that will increase to 10% of our acquisitions budget.”
House of Commons13 May 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“One layer will be major programmes, on which we will aim to cut the time to contract from the current average of six years to three years. The second layer is developing new upgrades—a new radar for one of our platforms, for example. For that segment, we aim to get to contract within one year instead of within three. At the faster end—I will not say the smaller end—we aim to get to contract for novel and agile dual-use technology within three months. That will challenge the MOD, but we are determined to do things better and make sure that our spending gets better value and better capability faster into the hands of our warfighters. Many companies in the north-east will be able to benefit from this. My hon.”
House of Commons13 May 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The system excludes small firms and they end up, at best, in the supply chains of the primes, which is fine as far as it goes, but does not enable them to show us what they can do in terms of agility and innovation. My hon. Friends will recall the Chancellor’s announcement in her spring statement that we are going to reform defence procurement. Part of that reform will be to speed up getting to contract. The average time to contract is six years, which is ridiculous in the current situation. Procuring a nuclear submarine might take a bit longer than procuring the latest drone, so we are going to segment our procurement arrangements to recognise the fact that not every contract is the same. We will do this in three layers.”
House of Commons13 May 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Friend the Member for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland spoke about the need for us to do procurement better and reform it. He mentioned some very good small firms, including Tees Components, which I know to a degree. It is a family firm in a small community that does wondrous things. There is enormous potential in north-east communities for innovation and dual-use technologies, but the way we do procurement now positively excludes small companies from being able to participate, partly because it takes us so long to do it and partly because of the requirements on the firms to prove all kinds of things and produce all kinds of documentation that they do not normally have the staff to produce. BAE Systems might, but a small family firm does not.”
House of Commons13 May 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“We are conducting the strategic defence review to assess fully the threats we face and to determine what capabilities we need to meet them. It is also why we brought forward an increase in defence spending to 2.5% of GDP from April 2027, with plans to raise it to 3% in the next Parliament; and it is why we are working hard on defence reform and the new defence industrial strategy. We cannot continue to spend money in the MOD as we spent in the past. We have to get better value. There is no point in increasing spending if we pour some of it down the drain. We have to do things better, and that is what defence reform is about. The defence industrial strategy is in part about how we can transform procurement to unlock the potential of suppliers across the country. My hon.”
House of Commons13 May 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I have managed to visit some, but not all of the constituencies represented here today. I know that people will now ask me to go to the other ones, and we will have to bear that in mind as time goes on. As we heard today, defence makes a considerable contribution to the north-east in terms of jobs, investment and growth, but my hon. Friends have also made clear that a huge contribution could be made beyond what has already been done. The nation as a whole needs us to boost our defence industries, and this Government are determined to do that. It is clear that the world is becoming much more dangerous and Britain is facing rising threats. At the same time, the Government face the challenge of rebuilding and reinvigorating our armed forces to meet those threats better, after a decade and a half of underfunding and hollowing out.”
House of Commons13 May 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“It is great to be here under your chairmanship, Mrs Hobhouse. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland (Luke Myer) on securing the debate and shedding light on the vital defence industry in the north-east, and particularly his part of the region. I thank my hon. Friends the Members for Stockton North (Chris McDonald), for North Durham (Luke Akehurst), for Hartlepool (Mr Brash), for Newton Aycliffe and Spennymoor (Alan Strickland), for Darlington (Lola McEvoy), and for Bishop Auckland (Sam Rushworth) for accompanying him to show the great strength of will among elected representatives in the north-east to boost and push the development of their defence industries. I congratulate them all on the contributions they made.”
House of Commons13 May 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The Defence Secretary raised this issue at the meeting of all NATO Defence Ministers in February and has held a number of discussions with NATO allies since, including with the US Secretary of Defence and in meetings with joint expeditionary force and E5 allies. European allies are stepping up within NATO, and the UK is leading efforts to increase defence spending and expand defence industrial capacity.”
House of Commons24 March 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I have met a number of my equivalents bilaterally, but it is important to say that we welcome the ReArm initiative and that it is in all our interests for SAFE to allow member states to partner with the UK. We will continue to emphasise the need for EU defence financing and wider defence industrial initiatives to include third countries like the UK. As my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State said in answer to an earlier question, we want to conclude a UK-EU defence and security pact that will give us access to that scheme.”
House of Commons24 March 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I thank my hon. Friend for his question. As I hope hon. Members from around the House are starting to realise, if I am asked for a meeting my general answer is yes. I am very happy to meet him.”
House of Commons24 March 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗