Oral Answers to Questions

Alberto Costa Excerpts

Monday 20th May 2019 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

These are extremely important matters, and in the name of their intelligibility to people who are not Members of the House I should point out that ODA in this context is not “odour,” but rather ODA—official development assistance—for the avoidance of a scintilla of doubt.

[Alberto Costa (South Leicestershire) (Con)]

What assessment has the Minister made of the mental health care services for veterans available in South Leicestershire and the wider east midlands?

[Mr Ellwood]

Part of the purpose of Mental Health Awareness Week was to raise awareness of where veterans can seek help. As I touched on earlier, every regional NHS authority must have a transition, intervention and liaison service programme in place. What we need to do better is communicating that to our veterans so that when they are down in a very dark place they know where help can be found. We are working with the charities on that to make sure we can further improve the communication.

Oral Answers to Questions

Alberto Costa Excerpts

Monday 12th September 2016 Commons Chamber

[Victoria Prentis (Banbury) (Con)]

4. What steps he is taking to increase the level of defence spending with small firms.

[Alberto Costa (South Leicestershire) (Con)]

10. What steps he is taking to increase the level of defence spending with small firms.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence (Harriett Baldwin)]

Small businesses are crucial for growth and innovation in this country, and we want them to take an increasing share of our growing defence budget. We are committed to achieving 25% of our procurement spend being with small and medium-sized enterprises by 2020. That target is 10% higher than the one set during the last Parliament.

[Harriett Baldwin]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right that it is essential that we work on that not only in our direct defence procurement process but with our supply chains. I am delighted to be able to let the House know that the supply chain advocate network and the supply chain champions, which my predecessor announced, are well under way, and that last year the Ministry of Defence was able to have direct spend with almost 5,000 different companies.

[Alberto Costa]

What measures can the MOD take to reduce the regulatory burden on small firms such as those in my constituency when they make applications for defence equipment procurement?

[Harriett Baldwin]

My hon. Friend is right to highlight ways in which we can make the process easier for small and medium-sized businesses. For example, this year we removed the turnover requirement in the pre-qualification process, and we are working towards simplifying the contract terms and reducing them to just three pages.

Oral Answers to Questions

Alberto Costa Excerpts

Monday 23rd November 2015 Commons Chamber

[The Minister for the Armed Forces (Penny Mordaunt)]

Prior to that incident, I met a number of non-governmental organisations to discuss a range of issues that the hon. Lady touches on, and I can assure her that this is at the forefront of our minds. Part of the reason for wanting to do more in this space is to prevent innocent civilians from being brutally slaughtered.

[Alberto Costa (South Leicestershire) (Con)]

T3. Given recent media coverage about the different views across this House on Trident renewal, will my right hon. Friend tell me who is responsible for deciding Government policy, specifically on that?

[Michael Fallon]

Let me reassure my hon. Friend that policy on this side of the House is decided by the Prime Minister and the Cabinet—indeed, the whole Government and the whole parliamentary party are united on the manifesto commitment we made to renew the deterrent. I urge moderate Labour Members to turn up tomorrow and vote to support a deterrent that every previous Labour Government have supported since it was introduced.