Oral Answers to Questions

Kevin Brennan Excerpts

Monday 13th September 2010 Commons Chamber

[Peter Luff]

Obviously, the prime duty of Ministers in the Ministry of Defence is to ensure that our troops have battle-winning military superiority, but I agree with my hon. Friend that that can often be done by buying off the shelf. Strangely, in a fast-moving technological world, that can often mean superior products with lower operational risk, which brings double benefits. As I have emphasised, there are many areas in which sovereign capability is absolutely vital, and cannot be prejudiced—for example, in cryptography.

[Kevin Brennan (Cardiff West) (Lab)]

The Secretary of State rightly mentioned the importance of skills to our armed personnel. Will he take the opportunity to reaffirm the previous Government’s commitment to the building of a new defence training college at St Athan in south Wales?

[Dr Fox]

The whole training defence review and its consequences, including St Athan, will be looked at as part of the wider strategic defence review.