Article 50

Debate between Julian Brazier and John Bercow

Wednesday 29th March 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call a Canterbury knight: Sir Julian Brazier.

[Sir Julian Brazier (Canterbury) (Con)]

Thank you, Mr Speaker. In strongly welcoming my right hon. Friend’s statement, may I particularly welcome what she said about remaining good Europeans, and does she agree that the fact that we are committed to NATO and its 2% undertaking, have troops deploying to eastern European neighbours who are embattled, and have troops fighting Daesh, which has brought horror to European cities, shows just what a good European country we are?

National Citizen Service Bill [Lords]

Debate between Julian Brazier and John Bercow

2nd reading: House of Commons & Money resolution: House of Commons & Programme motion: House of Commons
Monday 16th January 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

A Kentish knight, no less.

[Sir Julian Brazier (Canterbury) (Con)]

We did that last week, Mr Speaker.

[Mr Speaker]

Not everyone was here then, so I thought that that the hon. Gentleman would welcome an encore.

[Sir Julian Brazier]

I am most grateful, Mr Speaker.

Speaking as a huge supporter of the NCS, locally as well and nationally, does my right hon. Friend agree that the adventure content is critical? We must be careful about the continuing erosion of adventure in residential centres up and down the country, in terms of both numbers and quality, if the NCS is to continue to deliver success.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Julian Brazier and John Bercow

Tuesday 10th January 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call a Kentish knight, Sir Julian Brazier.

[Sir Julian Brazier (Canterbury) (Con)]

Thank you very much, Mr Speaker.

Given the trade ties that my right hon. Friend has already mentioned and the fact that we are Europe’s largest defence contributor, does he agree that we should not have to make deals on immigration and free movement to secure a good trade agreement with our allies and friends in Europe?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Julian Brazier and John Bercow

Monday 18th April 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Brazier]

My hon. Friend has shown ingenuity in managing to work that question in as a supplementary. As he knows very well, this matter has not yet been decided, but I am delighted that he has received such typically excellent assistance from the DA who covers Tunisia.

[Mr Speaker]

The Minister does not have to sound quite so surprised, because, as we have discovered, ingenuity is not an entirely novel phenomenon in the House of Commons.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Julian Brazier and John Bercow

Monday 18th January 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Brazier]

I share my hon. Friend’s concern in this area. He may wish to put a question on that to the excellent Under-Secretary of State for Defence, my hon. and gallant Friend the Member for Milton Keynes North (Mark Lancaster), who has responsibility for veterans, shortly.

[Mr Speaker]

Well, he cannot do so now. The operative word is “shortly”, but how shortly remains to be seen. That is not in the mind of the hon. Member for Plymouth, Moor View (Johnny Mercer), nor at the moment in mine.

[Martin John Docherty (West Dunbartonshire) (SNP)]

Will the Minister advise the House what impact a Brit exit, if there is one this year or next, would have on our armed services personnel currently in operations with the European Union overseas?

[Mr Brazier]

As far as I can see, none.

[Mr Speaker]

Splendid pithiness.

[Mr David Nuttall (Bury North) (Con)]

The Minister is quite right to remind the House that the cornerstone of our national security is our membership of NATO. Does he agree that if the British people vote to leave the European Union, as I hope they do, there is absolutely nothing to stop this country working with our European neighbours and co-operating on defence matters, should they choose to do so?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Julian Brazier and John Bercow

Monday 23rd November 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

May I gently implore Members to proceed a little more quickly? We have a lot to get through, and questions and answers have been lengthy.

[Mr Brazier]

I thoroughly agree with the hon. Lady.

[Mr Speaker]

One of the finest parliamentary answers in the course of the hon. Gentleman’s 28-year career to date.

[Dr Andrew Murrison (South West Wiltshire) (Con)]

Maritime patrol aircraft featured large in last year’s referendum, but does my hon. Friend agree that they are pretty pointless, either manned or unmanned, unless there is the data-gathering and analysis technology to go with it, and the wherewithal to respond to any threats that emerge—something that the SNP failed to offer last year?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Julian Brazier and John Bercow

Monday 13th July 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Brazier]

As my hon. Friend knows, the Government do not accept that the expansion of the reserves was a direct swap with regulars in the way that he describes. The purposes of the reserve forces were set out in the commission—which, as he says, carried my signature—and were threefold: to provide extra capacity at slightly lower readiness; to provide skills not available to the military; and to rebuild the connection between the military and society. We are committed to all those things, and the commitment of £1.8 billion over the next 10 years for reserves, which was recently reaffirmed by the 2% commitment to defence spending, further underlies that.

[Mr Speaker]

If the Minister would look at the House we would all be deeply obliged to him. I understand the natural temptation to turn round, but if he could face the House it would be helpful.

[Keith Vaz (Leicester East) (Lab)]

I welcome the Prime Minister’s commitment to increase by 10% the number of our armed forces from ethnic minorities. Can the Minister confirm that that will include members of the reserve forces?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Julian Brazier and John Bercow

Monday 8th June 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Brazier]

I join my hon. Friend in her tribute to the 37 Signal Regiment, which has deployed personnel on operations to Afghanistan, as well as on recent exercises in Belize, Gibraltar, Germany and Cyprus, and has provided essential work to the civil authorities in the UK. Army reserve units are paired with, and train alongside, regular units and, when required, may deploy with them—in 37’s case, with 16 Signal Regiment, as she knows. Reserves have the same access to equipment and technology as their regular counterparts, and receive high-quality, challenging training, including more opportunities to exercise overseas.

[Mr Speaker]

I see the right hon. Member for Mid Sussex (Sir Nicholas Soames) has perambulated to a different part of the Chamber, and is not where we are accustomed to seeing him—but I can still see him.

[Sir Nicholas Soames]

May I first congratulate my hon. Friend on his tremendous support and enthusiasm for the reserves, which is very well taken? He is aware of my connection with the Royal Yeomanry, but is he aware that it is the best recruiting regiment in the reserves? That is not just because it has made good use of what the central facility provides but because it does a lot of it itself, and takes a lot of trouble over recruiting. Will he emphasise to all the other reserve units that they can do a great deal themselves to encourage people in their regimental family to get more people into the reserves?

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Brazier]

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his welcome, and the same applies to him. It is always a pleasure to spar across the Dispatch Box. The Conservative manifesto was clear about expanding the number of reservists across the three services to 35,000. The funding is there through the £1.8 billion that was provided over a 10-year period, and the current strengths are running ahead of schedule in all three volunteer reserve services.

[Mr Speaker]

Order. At this point I appeal for slightly snappier questions and answers because we have a lot to get through.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Julian Brazier and John Bercow

Monday 23rd February 2015 Commons Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence (Mr Julian Brazier)]

There has been no attempt to refuse to answer that question. All Army recruits, regular and reserve—100%—come through online applications. We have published the numbers of enlistments. [Interruption.] The number I cited earlier—1,490—was the number of Army reservists. I will write to the hon. Gentleman with other numbers. There is no secret about this at all: all Army recruits come through the online system.

[Mr Speaker]

Put a copy in the Library.

Reserve Recruitment

Debate between Julian Brazier and John Bercow

Monday 17th November 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Brazier]

I am sorry, I did not hear the question.

[Mr Speaker]

How much money has been spent on television recruitment advertisements this year?

[Mr Brazier]

I will have to write to the hon. Gentleman.

Speaker’s Statement

Debate between Julian Brazier and John Bercow

Wednesday 14th May 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I thank the hon. Gentleman. His remarks are typically gracious and I think will be acknowledged by the House. If there are no further colleagues wishing to detain the House—they are very welcome to do so in exceptional circumstances, but if they do not choose to do so it is best that we move on. I thank the Minister, who is always sensitive to the atmosphere in the House.

[Mr Julian Brazier (Canterbury) (Con)]

rose—

[Mr Speaker]

Mr Brazier cannot contain himself.

[Mr Brazier]

On a point of order, Mr Speaker. As you have made the generous offer, Mr Speaker, it falls to those of us who are sitting members of the Committee and competitors to congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Penrith and The Border (Rory Stewart) on a remarkable victory and say how much we will enjoy serving under him.

[Mr Speaker]

I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on those remarks.

Defence Reform Bill

Debate between Julian Brazier and John Bercow

Wednesday 20th November 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Julian Brazier (Canterbury) (Con)]

I beg to move, That the clause be read a Second time.

[Mr Speaker]

With this it will be convenient to discuss the following:

New clause 2—Duties and powers of reserve forces and cadets associations—

‘(1) The Reserve Forces Act 1996 is amended as follows.

(2) After section 113(1) insert—

“(1A) In deciding which of the matters set out under subsection (2) should be transferred or assigned to the associations, the Secretary of State should take account of—

(a) the cost effectiveness of associations as compared with wider defence operations; and

(b) the ownership of the particular site.”.’.

New clause 3—Report on Future Reserves 2020—

‘(1) Within one month of the passage of this Act, the Secretary of State shall make and lay before Parliament a report on the viability and cost effectiveness of the plans set out in Reserves in the Future Force 2020: Valuable and Valued, Cmd 8655, together with his recommendation on its further implementation.

(2) Further implementation of the plans shall be halted 40 days after the laying of the report unless both Houses shall have resolved to approve the recommendation from the Secretary of State contained in the report.’.

Provides for a Government report detailing the viability and cost-effectiveness of the plans set out in the White Paper on Reserves (Cmd 8655). Both Houses must approve the report and the Secretary of State’s subsequent recommendation in order for the implementation of the reforms to reserve forces to continue.

New clause 4—Mental health provision for members of the reserve forces—

‘(1) The Secretary of State shall publish annually an analysis of mental health provision for members and former members of the reserve forces.

(2) The report shall include information and annual spend on such services.

(3) The Secretary of State shall within one year of this Act coming into force bring forward proposals clarifying provisions for the transfer of medical records belonging to former members of the reserve forces to the NHS and for the monitoring of the health needs of former members of the reserve forces.’.

New clause 6—Leave entitlement for reserve forces—

‘(1) The Employment Rights Act 1996 is amended as follows.

(2) After section 63C insert—

“63CA Right to time off for reserve forces

(1) An employee who is a member of a reserve force (as defined in section 374 of the Armed Forces Act 2006) is entitled to be permitted by his employer to take time off during the employee’s working hours in order to undertake training activities connected to the reserve force.

(2) An employee’s entitlement to time off under subsection (1) is limited to 14 days maximum.

(3) An employee is not entitled to paid remuneration by his employer for time off under subsection (1).

(4) This section does not apply to employees of companies with fewer than 50 employees.

63CB Complaints to employment tribunals

‘(1) An employee may present a complaint to an employment tribunal that his employer has unreasonably refused to permit him to take time off as required by section 63CA.

(2) An employment tribunal shall not consider a complaint under this section unless it is presented—

(a) before the end of the period of three months beginning with the day on which the time off was taken or on which it is alleged the time off should have been permitted, or

(b) within such further period as the tribunal considers reasonable in a case where it is satisfied that it was not reasonably practicable for the complaint to be presented before the end of that period of three months.

(3) Where an employment tribunal finds a complaint under this section well-founded, the tribunal shall make a declaration to that effect.”.’.

A reservist would be entitled to two weeks statutory additional unpaid leave from their employment (where the company has more than 50 employees) for the purpose of reserve forces training, for which they shall receive their military pay.

New clause 7—Publication of data on reserves—

‘(1) The Secretary of State shall publish quarterly recruitment figures and trained strength numbers of the reserve forces against adjusted quarterly targets.’.

Amendment 3, in clause 49, page 31, line 32, leave out ‘1 to 3’ and insert ‘1 and 2’.

Amendment 4, page 31, line 35, at end insert—

‘(2A) Part 3 shall not come into force unless the receommendation referred to in section Report on Future Reserves 2020 has been approved by both Houses, and may then be brought into force on such day or days as the Secretary of State may by order made by statutory instrument appoint.’.

[Mr Brazier]

It is a huge pleasure to speak to new clause 1. Let me also say how much I enjoyed serving on the Public Bill Committee, through which we were so well guided by the Under-Secretary of State for Defence, my hon. Friend the Member for Ludlow (Mr Dunne).

New clause 1 seeks to establish, on a permanent basis, a power for the council of the reserve forces and cadets associations to report annually to this House and the Secretary of State on the state of the reserves, and will restore to the reserves a powerful independent voice.

I hope you will indulge me, Mr Speaker, if I give the House a bit of history. In 1908, when that great reforming Secretary of State, Haldane, set up the Territorial Force, as it was then called, on its modern basis, it was recognised that if the force was established simply under the Regular Army, it would not prosper. Therefore, the county associations—what we now call the RFCAs—were given control of recruiting and property management for the TF, as it then was. Just six years later, at the outbreak of the first world war, there were 250,000 Territorials stood to arms. Thirty units went over to the continent in the first wave. Sir John French, our commander over on the continent, remarked:

“Without the assistance which the Territorials afforded between October 1914 and June 1915, it would have been impossible to hold the line in France and Belgium.”

Sir John French was of course referring to the beginning of the war, but even at that stage, the same split view, which I am afraid we still see today, existed in the Regular Army. Lord Kitchener, as Secretary of State, announced on the very day that he took up his post that he could

“take no account of anything but Regular soldiers”.

He derided the Territorial Force, which was already fighting over in France, as “a town clerk’s army” and said that it got its orders from “Lord Mayors’ parlours”. However, had it not been for the vigorous lobbying of Parliament by the county associations—the forerunners of the RFCAs, with which my new clause deals—his efforts simply to break up the TF and use it as a source of spare parts for the Regular Army would have been successful, and the remarkable process whereby it delivered almost half our fighting units by the end of the war and scored 71 Victoria Crosses in the process would never have happened.

The system continued for nearly a century. Indeed, in 2003-04, by far the largest deployment of reservists in post-second world war history took place. At one point, one fifth of all our forces in Iraq and, just afterwards, one eighth of all our forces in Afghanistan were from the reserves. It is no accident that two years ago the RFCA council elected as its chairman General Sir Robin Brims. The RFCAs elect people to such positions and have a structure that would be recognisable to those in all parts of the House. It is almost like a party structure, although RFCAs are not party political. General Brims commanded the remarkable capture of Basra. Getting into the centre of the city was an almost bloodless exercise and almost the only thing that went seriously right in the British engagement in Iraq. His deputy is Major General Simon Lalor, who is known to a number of people in the House and who headed the reserves very effectively during the last two years of the Labour Government.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Julian Brazier and John Bercow

Monday 9th September 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Julian Brazier (Canterbury) (Con)]

I strongly welcome my right hon. Friend’s robust answer. Does he agree that the people who are qualified to teach maths might in fact be those with good maths degrees, rather than teaching qualifications, and will he commend the university of Oxford for including teaching in schools as a possible module in its maths course?

[Mr Speaker]

The hon. Gentleman’s natural modesty prevents him from pointing out to the House that he is himself a distinguished mathematician, but that is now a matter of record.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Julian Brazier and John Bercow

Tuesday 5th March 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I think that the strength and knee muscles of the hon. Member for Canterbury (Mr Brazier) now deserve recognition.

[Mr Julian Brazier (Canterbury) (Con)]

Thank you, Mr Speaker; that is an interesting accolade.

I congratulate my right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary on that extraordinary summit between two powers that were very unlikely to share a room together even a few months ago. I also congratulate our embassy in Kabul on the extraordinary work it is doing to promote the commercial side of Afghanistan, particularly the mining projects, which in the long run are the key to prosperity for the country.

Informal European Council

Debate between Julian Brazier and John Bercow

Tuesday 31st January 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Order. There is still a very significant number of colleagues seeking to get in. I would like to try to accommodate as many as I can, but if I am to do so, brevity is essential.

[Mr Julian Brazier (Canterbury) (Con)]

My right hon. Friend the Prime Minister outlined in his speech at the Council several criteria needed for a successful monetary union, none of which have really been met by the changes, however welcome, outlined there, so may I urge him to continue to plan, while doing everything that he can to co-operate constructively, for the likely eventual break-up of the eurozone?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Julian Brazier and John Bercow

Wednesday 19th October 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Julian Brazier (Canterbury) (Con)]

Would my right hon. Friend agree that at a time when—[Interruption.]

[Mr Speaker]

Order. I want to hear Mr Brazier.

[Mr Brazier]

Would my right hon. Friend agree that at a time when the Governor of the Bank of England has said that we are facing a possibly unprecedented economic crisis, it is a good thing that the country is still committed to getting our debts under control and to retaining credibility in the financial markets?

Palestine and the United Nations

Debate between Julian Brazier and John Bercow

Thursday 15th September 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Order. So far, this matter has absorbed 13 minutes, and the vast majority of Back Benchers are still waiting to speak. What is required from Back Bench and Front Bench alike is brevity.

[Mr Julian Brazier (Canterbury) (Con)]

I welcome my hon. Friend’s firm commitment to a two-state solution, but I put it to him that what has changed over the past 20 years has been the building of a wall through part of the west bank and a programme of settlement building that is very close to closing the door to a two-state solution. May I urge him to take very seriously the Palestinian bid for statehood while, understandably, calling for some conditions?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Julian Brazier and John Bercow

Tuesday 6th September 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Order. I am grateful to the hon. Member for Montgomeryshire (Glyn Davies), but his question bears no relation to the responsibilities of the current Government and we will therefore leave it there.

[Mr Julian Brazier (Canterbury) (Con)]

Would my right hon. Friend accept that the fact that the euro has strengthened as a currency indicates that the markets believe that the weaker countries will not be able to push water up hill for much longer and are bound to drop out of the euro before very long?