Defence Personnel Data Breach
Debate between Lord Bellingham and Lord Harlech
Lord Harlech (Con)
As the noble Lord will be aware, we are in constant and regular dialogue with our allies and partners on a range of matters.
Lord Bellingham (Con)
My Lords, further to the question asked by the noble Lord on the Cross Benches about short-term losses if, for example, a pay run is delayed, what contingency do the Government have if there are any long-term losses as a result of bank accounts being frozen, or indeed anything more severe than that happening?
Lord Harlech (Con)
My noble friend raises an important point. We do not foresee this being an issue at this stage. However, the advice would be exactly the same for a sum small or large: it is to notify your chain of command immediately, and appropriate action will be taken on a case-by-case basis.
Ministry of Defence: Diversity, Equality and Inclusion
Debate between Lord Bellingham and Lord Harlech
Lord Bellingham
To ask His Majesty’s Government what plans they have to review the Ministry of Defence’s policies on diversity, equality and inclusion.
Lord Harlech (Con)
My Lords, I declare my interest as a serving Army reservist. My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Defence has ordered a review of all equality, diversity and inclusivity policies to ensure that all those who are willing and able to serve our nation can do so freely in an environment that is welcoming to all, with no policy distracting from or hindering defence’s priority of defending our nation and being able to fight our enemies in a more dangerous age.
Lord Bellingham (Con)
I am grateful to my noble friend for that reply. Has he seen the Army Race Action Plan and the Army’s policy guidance on inclusive behaviour? Does it make sense, at a time of unprecedented overstretch and undermanning, for the military to have 250 full-time diversity officers? Surely, they should be redeployed out of these non-jobs to the front line. Can he also confirm that demands by the Army’s race plan to dumb down Remembrance Sunday by removing the Christianity element will be firmly rejected?
If the people who author these reports—I hope that they will be called in by the Secretary of State and informed that their naivety is doing great damage—want to learn about diversity, they should go to the Memorial Gates on Constitution Hill, which commemorate the tens of thousands of Commonwealth soldiers who gave their lives for our freedom. They came from every race, creed, colour and religion.
Lord Harlech (Con)
I thank my noble friend for the question. He is absolutely right. From trailblazers such as Walter Tull to the Rajputana Rifles, the Gurkhas, Commonwealth personnel and our British Overseas Territory regiments, the British Army has a long and proud history of diversity and inclusivity.
On my noble friend’s specific question about full-time staff, the figure I have is that it is closer to 40 than 240. They do important work improving the experiences of service personnel by driving changes to uniform, body armour, health policies and, more broadly, by tackling unacceptable behaviour.
Farming: Support
Debate between Lord Bellingham and Lord Harlech
Lord Harlech (Con)
Discussions are ongoing in response to the issues that the report rightly raised. In our recent document Unleashing Rural Opportunity, we set out how we are taking action to increase the number of doctors in underserved areas through the targeted enhanced recruitment scheme for GP trainees and to support community pharmacies in more sparsely served areas through the pharmacy access scheme.
Lord Bellingham (Con)
My Lords, is the Minister aware that tenant farmers across the UK—in Scotland, England, Northern Ireland and Wales—are the lifeblood of agriculture? Unfortunately, many of them cannot reap the benefits of diversification on farms and estates because they do not own the buildings. What can the Minister say about the Government’s policy towards helping tenant farmers?
Lord Harlech (Con)
My noble friend raises a very important issue, which was also highlighted in my noble friend Lady Rock’s review about the importance of tenant farmers. I agree that they are the lifeblood of the sector. The Government have set out our next steps to support tenant farmers from day one of the agricultural transition. We have worked with tenant farmers, we have co-designed our farming schemes, and we have announced a new tenant farming forum which will improve the way we communicate with the sector and help us ensure that our schemes are as accessible as possible to tenants. We will be launching a call for evidence to examine the need for a tenant farming commissioner in England.
Ukraine: Depleted Uranium
Debate between Lord Bellingham and Lord Harlech
Lord Harlech (Con)
My Lords, on escalation, it needs to be reiterated that Putin signalled his intention to station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus as early as June 2022. He has been playing this game for a long time and is simply trying to capitalise on the supply of these munitions to our Ukrainian allies.
Lord Bellingham (Con)
My Lords, the Minister mentioned a number of organisations that have concluded that these weapons were safe, but is he aware that the Royal Society carried out a report and concluded that any impact on personal health and the environment is, in its words, “very low”? Does he also agree that it is incredibly hypocritical of the Kremlin to criticise this supply of weapons when it has been using depleted uranium shells from the start of the war?
Lord Harlech (Con)
My noble friend raises several excellent points, all of which I agree with.