Armed Forces Act (Continuation) Order 2018

Lord Geddes Excerpts

Tuesday 20th March 2018 Grand Committee

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, let me begin by thanking in particular the noble Lord, Lord Jones, for having focused our minds on the historical origins of the order. I fully agree that we should not treat this as a mere routine measure. It behoves us to remind ourselves of where this all came from and where the legal framework on which our Armed Forces rely originates. I had to turn to my officials for a copy of the Bill of Rights in light of the comments of the noble Lord, Lord Campbell—

[The Deputy Chairman of Committees (Lord Geddes) (Con)]

My Lords, a Division has been called in the Chamber. The Grand Committee stands adjourned for 10 minutes, to resume at, give or take, 5 pm.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Deputy Chairman of Committees]

My Lords, I rudely interrupted the noble Earl mid-flow. Perhaps he would like to continue.

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, not for the first time, we can be grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Campbell of Pittenweem, for drawing our attention to what may seem an anomaly in the date I read out from the Bill of Rights. I hope that I can convince him that I was correct—and that he too was correct. The Bill of Rights, a copy of which I have in my hand, is indeed dated 1688. However, the noble Lord may be interested to know that in the preamble of the Bill, the following words appear:

“Whereas the late King James the Second by the Assistance of diverse evill Councellors Judges and Ministers imployed by him did endeavour to subvert and extirpate the Protestant Religion and the Lawes and Liberties of this Kingdome”,


and so on. It is apparent from the notes attached to the Bill that:

“The Bill of Rights is assigned to the year 1688 on legislation.gov.uk … although the Act received Royal Assent on 16th December 1689. This follows the practice adopted in The Statutes of the Realm, Vol. VI (1819), in the Chronological Table in that volume and all subsequent Chronological Tables of the Statutes, which attach all the Acts in”,


the first year of William and Mary’s reign,

“to the year 1688. The first Parliament of William and Mary (the Convention Parliament) convened on 13th February 1689 (1688 in the old style calendar—until 1st Jan 1752 the calendar year began on March 25th)”.

So I am afraid that we are at the mercy here of a historical quirk which has, quite rightly, prompted the noble Lord, Lord Campbell, to question the accuracy of what I said.

Defence Reform Bill

Lord Geddes Excerpts

Tuesday 25th February 2014 Grand Committee

Relevant documents: 17th and 21st Reports from the Delegated Powers Committee.

[The Deputy Chairman of Committees (Lord Geddes) (Con)]

My Lords, it is now 3.30 pm. As required, I must advise the Grand Committee that if there is a Division in the Chamber while we are sitting, which I consider unlikely, the Committee will adjourn as soon as the Division Bells ring and resume after 10 minutes.

Clause 13: Single Source Regulations Office (or “SSRO”)

Debate on whether Clause 13 should stand part of the Bill.

Defence Reform Bill

Lord Geddes Excerpts

Monday 3rd February 2014 Grand Committee

[The Deputy Chairman of Committees (Lord Geddes) (Con)]

My Lords, as is customary on these occasions, I must advise the Grand Committee that if there is a Division in the Chamber while we are sitting, the Committee will adjourn as soon as the Division Bells ring and resume after 10 minutes. Before calling Amendment 1, I must advise your Lordships that there is a mistake in the Marshalled List. The amendment should say, “Page 1, line 10”, not “line 9”.

Clause 1: Arrangements for providing defence procurement services

Amendment 1

Moved by

Defence: Type 26 Global Combat Ship

Lord Geddes Excerpts

Monday 2nd December 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Astor of Hever]

My Lords, I agree with the noble Lord that defence of the nation is absolutely the top priority of the Government. That is why we are undertaking the Type 26 global combat ship programme. The Type 26 will become the backbone of the Royal Navy from around 2020, and the programme will help sustain surface warship capability in the United Kingdom after the construction of the carriers. This multibillion-pound investment will secure thousands of skilled shipbuilding jobs across the UK for decades to come.

[Lord Geddes (Con)]

Could my noble friend advise what assessment the Ministry of Defence has made of the export potential for these vessels?

[Lord Astor of Hever]

My Lords, the Type 26 is a credible export design and there are likely to be three export variants—general purpose, anti-submarine warfare, and air defence—all sharing a common acoustically quiet hull to realise economies of scale. It is not expected that the UK will build export variants, but international interest in the design is unprecedented. It should be stressed, however, that the Type 26 is neither dependent upon nor funding the export campaign.

Energy Bill

Lord Geddes Excerpts

Tuesday 9th July 2013 Grand Committee

[The Deputy Chairman of Committees (Lord Geddes)]

My Lords, it is now half-past three. As is usual on these occasions, I have to advise the Grand Committee that if there is a Division in the Chamber while we are sitting, the Committee will adjourn as soon as the Division Bells are rung and resume after 10 minutes.

Clauses 107 to 112 agreed.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Deputy Chairman of Committees (Lord Geddes)]

The noble Lord, Lord Grantchester, was in full flow, and perhaps he would now like to resume.

[Lord Grantchester]

The Government are not providing any further information other than that further work is under way to update the initial value-for-money analysis undertaken last year and that Defence Ministers will be asked to decide whether to invite bids for the GPSS on the basis of that work. I welcome the presence of the Defence Minister to provide clarity to the Committee.

Given that this Bill will have completed its passage through Parliament by that stage, will the Minister tell the Committee today by what means Parliament will be able to assess the analysis and ask for certainties beyond the bland assurances already provided by the Minister of State in the other place, Mr Greg Barker, to my honourable friend Luciana Berger? It is recognised that a sale contract would be a private matter and not wholly for Parliament. No doubt the Public Accounts Committee may also scrutinise any sale. However, nothing in the clause deals with the contractual nature or goes beyond any theoretical possibility. Will the Government explain why they want to sell and whether they may limit the sale or lease to the use of the pipeline and retain the fabric or even vice versa? Any transfer would want to pass over as many liabilities as possible while retaining as many benefits. Is there any comfort in Clause 113 providing that it must be for valuable consideration? I presume that the Minister can qualify this as positive valuable consideration and will exclude negative valuable consideration—that is, someone is paid to take it away or it is part of a larger transaction as an uncosted supplement. Will the Minister also clarify what conditions the Government consider appropriate when asking this Committee to acquiesce to this power?

Finally, the Minister might be tempted to say that the Government do not yet know all the appropriate conditionality pertaining to any transfer. Will the noble Lord look at the suggestion by my noble friend Lord O’Neill and come forward with an amendment to bring regulation to the situation or to introduce any sale or transfer to Parliament when there is clarity around the circumstances which the Minister is happy to explain and promote when the time comes?

Armed Forces: Local Overseas Allowance

Lord Geddes Excerpts

Thursday 25th October 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Astor of Hever]

My Lords, I do not share the noble Lord’s pessimistic view of the morale of the senior Armed Forces but, as I said, we are constantly reviewing morale, allowances and everything else that leads to morale in the Armed Forces.

[Lord Geddes]

My Lords, I was fervently hoping that some other noble Lord would ask this question—but, in my appalling ignorance, what is Operation Kipion?

[Lord Astor of Hever]

My Lords, Operation Kipion replaced Operations Telic and Calash. It covers operations in the Arabian Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz, the Gulf of Aden, off the coast of Somalia and in Iraq. The latter is a defence section at the embassy, where we have a number of service personnel.