Oral Answers to Questions

Angela Richardson Excerpts

Monday 6th July 2020 Commons Chamber

[Sally-Ann Hart (Hastings and Rye) (Con)]

What steps his Department is taking to ensure that the capabilities of the armed forces are adequate to tackle future security threats.

[Angela Richardson (Guildford) (Con)]

What steps his Department is taking to ensure that the capabilities of the armed forces are adequate to tackle future security threats.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Wallace]

We have the funds and plans in place to ensure that our armed forces are playing to their strengths. We are investing in the likes of the future combat air system technology initiative, in nuclear submarines and in cyber-technology to ensure that we are fighting the battle for tomorrow.

[Angela Richardson]

The work on the review of our foreign policy and national security—the largest of its kind—has been paused during this pandemic. Will my right hon. Friend assure me that when it resumes, he will continue to ensure that we frame our thinking around threat at every stage of the review?

[Mr Wallace]

My hon. Friend is right—but the review was slowed down, not entirely paused, during the covid pandemic. We did continue to work on it in the Ministry of Defence. Last week I gathered the chiefs of all the services and the head of defence intelligence together to hear about the threat and the doctrine of our adversaries, and about how the chiefs are going to deliver a solution to that threat. That is my starting point for the integrated review. It is not the budget or the bureaucracy; it is the starting point for meeting the threat and the demand on our forces, and for ensuring that we give the men and women of the armed forces the best equipment and capability that they deserve.