Oral Answers to Questions
Martin Wrigley Excerpts(3 days, 11 hours ago)
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Al Carns
I thank my hon. Friend for hosting that visit. The two key programmes are Op Courage, which has had 30,000 referrals already, and Op Restore, to help veterans with muscular and skeletal problems. I point any veteran to the gov.uk page that describes all the support that they can get via the NHS and others.
Martin Wrigley (Newton Abbot) (LD)
Small and medium-sized enterprises in my constituency tell me that research and development funding has dried up since last December. What hope can the Minister offer to ensure that SMEs continue their vital innovation to keep the UK safe, and to help them turn their swords into ploughshares?
Maria Eagle
The hon. Gentleman is right to highlight the importance of SMEs in improving our industrial base and bringing agility and new ideas to our defence industrial production. He can be assured that there will be SME involvement in our industrial strategy to the extent that it is possible. We intend to make sure that SMEs, not just the primes, get a better in at the MOD and are able to get the work.
Defence: 2.5% GDP Spending Commitment
Martin Wrigley Excerpts(1 week, 3 days ago)
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Urgent Questions are proposed each morning by backbench MPs, and up to two may be selected each day by the Speaker. Chosen Urgent Questions are announced 30 minutes before Parliament sits each day.
Each Urgent Question requires a Government Minister to give a response on the debate topic.
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John Healey
In our first Budget, we increased next year’s defence spending by nearly £3 billion. We have a cast-iron commitment to increasing defence spending to 2.5% of GDP—a level that, over the past 14 years, Conservative Governments simply never matched.
Martin Wrigley (Newton Abbot) (LD)
The Secretary of State rightly refers to R&D spending and small firms, yet small firms in my constituency tell me that spending has dried up. Can he assure me that this is just a blip and that normal flow will resume as soon as possible?
John Healey
I think the shadow Secretary of State will agree that one of the necessary reforms to our procurement system, especially in an era in which innovation and technological development will be at an increasing premium, is to do much more to support small and innovative firms, perhaps including some in the hon. Gentleman’s constituency. We have to reform our procurement system to ensure that happens, and we will.