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HANSARDDefence Investment PlanI thank the noble Lord, Lord Fox, and the noble Baroness, Lady Goldie, for their contributions and important questions. I will start by dealing with the question of spending,…01 Jul 2026HANSARDDefence Investment PlanThere is a lot in the strategic defence review and the Defence Investment Plan about building up a greater sovereign capability in some of the areas that the noble Lord has…01 Jul 2026HANSARDDefence Investment PlanIndeed, we will come forward with proposals and plans with respect to a national conversation. The noble Baroness is right in her suggestion. We can see—many Members of this House…01 Jul 2026HANSARDDefence Investment PlanI thank the noble Lord for his question and his comments, which come from a great knowledge and experience, and I thank him for his remarks about me. Just to reiterate, the GCAP…01 Jul 2026HANSARDDefence Investment PlanI cannot give the noble Baroness an assurance about what the Republic will pay for, but let me just say that there has been improved and increasing co-operation between the…01 Jul 2026HANSARDDefence Investment PlanIndeed, as I said to the noble Baroness, of course we need a conversation to more fully and carefully explain to the public why we need to increase our expenditure on defence and…01 Jul 2026HANSARDDefence Investment PlanThe noble and gallant Lord is right to point out the importance of GCAP and how it offers a sixth-generation option for us after 2040, when Typhoon is expected to go out of…01 Jul 2026HANSARDDefence Investment PlanThere is an additional £1.5 billion, and there are also some changes with respect to the way in which there is a greater emphasis in this document on autonomy, AI and the…01 Jul 2026HANSARDDefence Investment PlanIn terms of the spending, I have made the point about the 2027 spending review, and that the document lays out that we will come back to the 3% commitment at the 2027 spending…01 Jul 2026HANSARDDefence Investment PlanI do not know about the ambitions for net zero. All I can say to the noble Baroness is that, of course, spending is important, and increasing the amount of spending on defence is…01 Jul 2026HANSARDDefence Investment PlanI agree with that. In the document, it talks about the need for the transformation of our Armed Forces, and much of that will be around uncrewed capabilities and drones. It is not…01 Jul 2026HANSARDDefence Investment Plan“No” is the answer to the noble Baroness’s question. Homeland defence runs all the way through the document: how we have better air defence, what we do about improving the use of…01 Jul 2026HANSARDDefence Investment PlanThe catastrophic decision to pick out of what my noble friend said—given the importance that I, the Government and Members across this House attach to this—was the delay in 2010…01 Jul 2026HANSARDPalantir: Public Service ContractsMy Lords, government departments operate within a robust procurement and assurance framework, ensuring that contracts are awarded only where requirements are met and no exclusion…29 Jun 2026HANSARDPalantir: Public Service ContractsMy noble friend is quite right to challenge the Government on these incredibly important issues around human rights and how the Government establish their contracts. To be clear…29 Jun 2026HANSARDPalantir: Public Service ContractsMy noble friend makes a really important point. Many people across this Chamber will know that the responsibility of government requires difficult decisions to be made. As my…29 Jun 2026HANSARDPalantir: Public Service ContractsMy understanding is that the mayor and the commissioner have now reached an arrangement with respect to the activity of Palantir within the Metropolitan Police, where there will…29 Jun 2026HANSARDPalantir: Public Service ContractsThe noble Baroness is quite wise to raise that point; it is a question I asked too. Officials told me that it was the only company—the only available platform—that could provide…29 Jun 2026HANSARDPalantir: Public Service ContractsThe noble Baroness will see in due course some of the ways in which we are taking forward AI, but she is quite right to ask about this. AI is crucial to the future provision for…29 Jun 2026HANSARDPalantir: Public Service ContractsMy noble friend makes a really important point. Palantir provides us with the capability that we require at the moment, but he will be reassured by the fact that, alongside…29 Jun 2026