Contributions
589 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDCadets: Career PreparationI have visited multiple cadet units all over the country and have been truly astounded at the social mobility that the cadets provides for a whole range of young people. We have…24 Mar 2025HANSARDDomestic Abuse: Defence PersonnelIt is completely clear to me that any sort of domestic abuse in any way, shape or form in the armed forces is completely unacceptable. If we can help to address and track some of…24 Mar 2025HANSARDDomestic Abuse: Defence PersonnelAs I mentioned earlier, we are moving forward with our women and girls taskforce to drive progress on the Government’s commitment to halve violence against women and girls in a…24 Mar 2025HANSARDSexual HarassmentI refer my hon. Friend to my answer to the last question. The violence against women and girls taskforce is taking best practice from the rest of Government and ensuring that it…24 Mar 2025HANSARDService Police Complaints Commissioner Annual Report 2023I am pleased to place in the Library of the House today the Ministry of Defence’s formal response to the Service Police Complaints Commissioner’s annual report for 2023. The…25 Feb 2025HANSARDTopical QuestionsWe are absolutely a Government who support veterans. If the hon. Gentleman will send me the details of that case, I will look into it personally. We pay out over £1 billion in…10 Feb 2025HANSARDTopical QuestionsIt is a fair correction. I said “in a couple of months” and then “in the spring”.10 Feb 2025HANSARDTopical QuestionsAbsolutely. Birmingham has a cluster of fantastic hospital and medical care facilities, as well as the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine. I would love to visit, and I hope I can…10 Feb 2025HANSARDTopical QuestionsFirst of all, I thank my hon. Friend for hosting a fantastic get-together with veterans, bereaved families and the charitable sector. I learned a huge amount from the visit. I…10 Feb 2025HANSARDTopical QuestionsWe just talked about resilience and defence in depth. The cadets provide an example of where we can bring society and defence together to help people understand the benefits of…10 Feb 2025HANSARDTopical QuestionsI served with the Gurkhas on various tours in Afghanistan and across the world. They are some of the best forces we have, and they do a fantastic job upholding the freedoms we…10 Feb 2025HANSARDTopical QuestionsNational resilience and defence in depth is essential as we move forward, when the threat is transferred from non-state actors to state actors across the globe. When the strategic…10 Feb 2025HANSARDTopical QuestionsI thank my hon. Friend for his question. The visit to Redditch was truly enlightening; the charitable sector there is doing amazing work to support veterans in his constituency. I…10 Feb 2025HANSARDTopical QuestionsThere is a long-standing deal with other nations on the welfare of families and so on. This Government are supporting our armed forces community. We will pay 90% through the CEA.…10 Feb 2025HANSARDVeterans’ Commissioner: EnglandAbsolutely. I just travelled to the north-east of England and hit three different councils, looking at the different ways in which they deal with the veterans issue. I am really…10 Feb 2025HANSARDVeterans’ Commissioner: EnglandI reassure the hon. Member that I work closely with my Northern Ireland, Welsh and Scottish commissioners. We are currently looking at the structures by which we support veterans…10 Feb 2025HANSARDMinority Groups in the Armed ForcesWhen we started the Etherton review, a lot of engagement went out across some of our NATO allies to take best practice. Now that we have launched the programme, we are also making…10 Feb 2025HANSARDMinority Groups in the Armed ForcesI thank the hon. Member for his useful comments. We have launched our Raising our Standards programme, which will take standards from where they were and raise them. We will make…10 Feb 2025HANSARDMinority Groups in the Armed ForcesWhy do we support a more diverse military? It is simple: it makes us better, it makes us think differently and, importantly, it means the military represents the society we are…10 Feb 2025HANSARDArmed Forces: Death-in-service PaymentsScoring political points on the back of armed forces families is unacceptable. This is a public consultation, and it is not the Government’s responsibility to answer it. We have…10 Feb 2025