Vanguard Submarine Replacement

Baroness Seccombe Excerpts

Wednesday 10th February 2016 Lords Chamber

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, yes. To be effective, the nuclear deterrent has to be credible. We take the responsibility to maintain a credible nuclear deterrent extremely seriously. We continually assess all the threats and review them against the capability of our submarines to ensure their current and future operational effectiveness, including threats against cyber and unmanned vehicles. We are confident that the deterrent remains safe and secure and will be so in the future.

[Baroness Seccombe (Con)]

My Lords, does the Minister consider that our national security would be at risk if the rest of the world knew that our submarines carried no nuclear armaments?

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, to state the obvious, a nuclear deterrent requires nuclear warheads. The Government were elected on a manifesto commitment to retain a nuclear deterrent, so having anything less than a nuclear warhead in our submarines would not offer a credible deterrent.

Territorial Army

Baroness Seccombe Excerpts

Wednesday 17th July 2013 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Baroness Seccombe]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the planned expansion and reorganisation of the Territorial Army, whether they have plans to close any Territorial Army Centres.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence (Lord Astor of Hever)]

My Lords, my noble friend will recall the Statement I made on 3 July, which stated that to maximise the potential for future recruitment, the Army will rationalise its presence by merging small, poorly recruited sub-units into larger sites, frequently in the same conurbation or in neighbouring communities. The overall number of Army Reserve bases will reduce from the current total of 334 to 308, a net reduction of 26 sites.

[Baroness Seccombe]

My Lords, the cadet movement, which one could say is the corn seed of our services, offers an exciting taste of service life and often provides a discipline that has not been part of young people’s lives. There are many alternative attractions on their doorstep. Does the Minister agree that it is vital that the cadet detachments are situated locally? Many of those detachments at present are situated within the existing territorial centres. Given the recently announced closure of some TA centres, can the Minister confirm that there will be no loss of cadet locations in the short and long term?

[Lord Astor of Hever]

My Lords, I agree with my noble friend. Defence has well established, challenging and vibrant cadet programmes with very high reputations, which will continue to be fully supported. Cadet units provide an important link with local communities. Where cadets are co-located on a site for which there is no longer a defence requirement, I can confirm that we will pursue reprovision of the facilities for the cadets to ensure that a local cadet presence is maintained.