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  • Angela Eagle – 2023 Speech on Pride Month

    Angela Eagle – 2023 Speech on Pride Month

    The speech made by Dame Angela Eagle, the Labour MP for Wallasey, in the House of Commons on 15 June 2023.

    As always on this occasion, it is a great pleasure to see you in the chair, Mr Deputy Speaker. I add my tributes to Glenda Jackson, following today’s sad news. I grew up watching her performing in “Elizabeth R”. I then found myself sat next to her for seven hours in this place as we both attempted to make our maiden speeches. She got in just ahead of me, but in the end we both got in. I worked with her in government as a Minister, and I also had the privilege to see her in “King Lear”—at the Old Vic, rather than in New York—and I can attest to the stupendous nature of her performance in one of my favourite Shakespearean plays. We will all miss her. Of course, she was a Birkenhead girl—I just thought I would get that in before I continued. I am sure the whole House sends condolences to her son Dan, and to her wider circle of friends and family.

    I would like to draw attention to early-day motion 1275, tabled by my hon. Friend the Member for Nottingham East (Nadia Whittome) and signed on a cross-party basis, including by the hon. Member for Bridgend (Dr Wallis). I think our thoughts have been with the only transgender Member of this House at the moment given the toxicity of some of the debate, which the hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington (Elliot Colburn) raised in his very able moving of the motion in this year’s Pride debate.

    In the UK, every June the LGBT community and our allies celebrate Pride Month, and I am grateful, as I think we all are, to the Backbench Business Committee for continuing to give us time to have this debate. The events that take place during Pride Month give us all a chance to celebrate our history, which is very important as it teaches us and gives us hints about what may lie ahead in the future if we do not keep our wits about us. It also gives us a chance to celebrate the remarkable progress we have made as an LGBT+ community, from LGBT+ people being criminalised to legal equality, visibility and much more widespread acceptance. That is quite a journey.

    It is a remarkable change, and it has happened in my lifetime. I am older than I sometimes think myself to be, but I am not that old in the scheme of the social history of this country, so that demonstrates the scale of the change I think most of us in the Chamber, although not all, have witnessed. Pride also gives us the chance to show solidarity with other LGBT+ people around the world who have yet to make the progress that we have enjoyed, and who in 66 countries still face legal bans on their existence and in some extreme cases face the death penalty.

    Virginia Crosbie (Ynys Môn) (Con)

    I thank the hon. Member for allowing me to intervene, and I also thank my hon. Friend the Member for Carshalton and Wallington (Elliot Colburn) for securing this really important debate on Pride Month. This is very important to me and to constituents on Ynys Môn such as Bruce Hughes, and I look forward to the time when we can celebrate Pride Month right across Anglesey and really celebrate this solidarity and the remarkable progress we have made.

    Dame Angela Eagle

    I agree, and I certainly hope that Pride in Anglesey is as enjoyable as Pride in London, and also as enjoyable as Pride in Liverpool, which this year will be hosting Ukraine Pride too. It will not be quite as glitzy as the recent party we had for Eurovision, but it will in its own way be just as glamorous.

    I was talking about legal bans, and the situation in some other countries where people have not made the same progress as we have been fortunate enough to deliver in this country. Pride is about supporting their battles for human rights and dignity, and the all-party parliamentary group, which the hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington and I are honoured to chair, does its best to bring those issues to the attention of the House and of Government agencies.

    We use Pride Month to assess how we must plan to protect and advance the equal rights that we have fought for, and we march and we protest, but we do also party, as I think has perhaps been mentioned before—it seems to be a theme. We party, and we parade and march, because visibility is a part of the celebration that Pride represents. It is about our own pride in our authentic existence, because being out in the open is so much better than being afraid and in the shadows. We must bear that in mind as the debates that problematise particular parts of our community continue to rage around us.

    Why do we do this? We do it because we have a collective memory of what it was like before we fought for change, and we do not want to go back to those dark days of prejudice, bigotry and oppression. What is the point of us carrying on doing it now that, apparently, we are accepted? It is because a diverse society is a stronger society. Everyone thrives better in an accepting society in which the norm is dignity and respect, rather than division and prejudice. I have a feeling that we are about to have to fight that battle all over again between those two visions of what a society should be like.

    We want a society in which people are not discriminated against because of their sexual orientation or gender identity, and we can celebrate remarkable progress at home and abroad in the battle for liberation for LGBT+ people. This year is the 20th anniversary of the repeal of section 28 in our country. It is also the 19th anniversary of the Civil Partnership Act 2004, which first gave legal recognition and protection to same-sex relationships, and 10 years since the equal marriage Act—the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013—which opened up that happy prospect to same-sex couples.

    There has also been very welcome progress globally for LGBT+ people. Just in the last year, same-sex activity has been decriminalised in five more countries—Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Singapore, Barbados and the Cook Islands. However, as I said earlier, that still leaves 66 countries where it is illegal to be gay. Half of them are in the Commonwealth, where homophobic laws that were often imported during the colonial era still hold sway. We in the all-party group on global LGBT+ rights can celebrate some progress, but we know that the battles are far from over.

    We also know that there has been bad news this year, as well as progress, as the hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington mentioned in his opening speech. The odious anti-homosexuality law just enacted in Uganda and signed into being by President Museveni is especially extreme in mandating life imprisonment for homosexual conduct, and the death penalty in some instances. It outlaws any “promotion of homosexuality”, which is a familiar phrase to some of us who lived through the 1980s, including advocating for LGBT rights. People can now be jailed if they advocate for human rights in Uganda. There is also a 20-year jail sentence for providing financial support to LGBT+ people, which includes giving them somewhere to live.

    Lloyd Russell-Moyle (Brighton, Kemptown) (Lab/Co-op)

    My hon. Friend is raising the very concerning situation in Uganda, a country I have visited many times. A number of embassies in Uganda offer space for the LGBT community to meet and organise for safety purposes because of the awful backlash. We should celebrate that, and continue to push for the British embassy to do likewise, as other European embassies have done, so that we protect our friends and colleagues who are fighting the good fight for human rights there.

    Dame Angela Eagle

    Well, certainly, and the hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington and I met the International Development Minister just yesterday to talk about this very thing. We also talked about what other response there might be to what is happening in Uganda, particularly in trying to protect LGBT activists there, but also to make it certain that there is no impunity for those advocating these kinds of laws. We raised the prospect of visa bans, travel bans and other ways of making our displeasure known, and we wait to hear what the Government will say about that. This is the most extreme law that has been passed on to a statute book, but similar statutes are now appearing in other African states. Notably in Ghana, but in other African states as well, there are big pushes to enact similar laws.

    Progressive momentum has also stalled in our own country. The UK Government cannot seem to decide whether they are going to maintain their acceptance of the gains made by LGBT people, or tee up an even more vicious culture war against trans people ahead of the next general election. Almost five years since the Government first announced their intention to ban conversion practices, there is still no sign of the oft-promised draft legislation that would achieve that very laudable aim, which would have widespread support across this House. We are still waiting to see that, yet every day of delay from this Government puts more vulnerable, usually young, people at risk from this highly damaging form of psychological abuse. As I think I said last year, I hope that the Minister might be able to confirm today that the Bill will be published soon. We were hoping it would be a Bill last year, and now we are told it is a draft Bill, but we have still not had sight or sound of it. I am sure that behind the scenes he is absolutely on the right side of these arguments, and I do not want to embarrass him in public, but I suspect there may be others who are not. I wish him well with any battles that he is having, and I hope that the Bill will be published before the summer recess, so that we can check that it is trans-inclusive and that it is effective because it does not contain a gigantic “consent” loophole.

    As the general election gets closer, the Prime Minister has decided to go along with an attempt to set up a response to what he referred to in his failed leadership bid last summer as the threat to “our women” from trans people. Daily screaming headlines in Tory-supporting tabloids have followed disgustingly, painting all trans women as potentially violent, predatory, and a threat to women and girls. That has created a climate of fear and hostility to all trans people, and seen levels of hate crimes against all LGBT+ people, and especially trans people, soar in the last year. There is a reason why Pride in London has decided to march in solidarity with trans people this year, and I hope that many of those who wish to see our society support everyone positively will join us on the Pride march on 1 July.

    With this targeting, we must remember that there are only small numbers of trans people in this country. If we read the headlines, one would think that everything that goes wrong, and all violence against women, was somehow perpetrated by trans women. It is out of all proportion and doing enormous damage, and I wish it would stop. I wish the Government would take a stand against it, instead of standing back, letting it happen, and calculating whether there is any political gain for them in allowing it to go on.

    I recognise a politically induced moral panic when I see one. I also recognise a discredited Government who are unleashing a culture war for their own political ends. All power to the elbows of those in the Conservative party who are trying to get this stopped: Labour is with you and we hope you will be successful. This kind of activity happened before in the 1980s, when the same tactics and tropes were used to demonise gay men. That led to section 28, which unleashed untold misery for a generation of LGBT+ young people, and for those who were perceived as “different”, whether they were gay or not. We cannot and must not let history repeat itself.

    I am a feminist, I am a lesbian, and I am a trans ally. I do not believe that allowing trans men and women to live with dignity and respect threatens my rights or my wellbeing in the slightest. We all advance together, or not at all. Even at this late stage, the Government could do the decent thing and abandon their divisive tactics. Instead of endless prevarication, they could publish sensible and inclusive relationships and sex education guidance, which our schools have been waiting for since 2019. They could stop playing dangerous and divisive games with trans people by trying to set their rights against women’s rights.

    All the anti-LGBT+ and anti-trans rhetoric is not spontaneously appearing out of nowhere. It is the result of carefully planned and well-funded efforts on a global scale. OpenDemocracy reports on a 2020 investigation that found that more than 20 US fundamentalist religious groups fighting against LGBT+ rights and abortion rights had spent $54 million in Africa pursuing those agendas—an investment that, shamefully, appears to be bearing some fruit.

    Lloyd Russell-Moyle

    The situation in Uganda is very similar. Uganda was the first African country to hold the UN world AIDS conference, and there Museveni gave out condoms to every person that joined. That was 20 years ago. When I last went to Uganda with the International Development Committee and former MP Stephen Twigg, we sat in classrooms where children were told that the way to stop HIV and AIDS was to not sleep with other men and to have a good wash after themselves. That is not just dangerous on an LGBT scale but dangerous for global health. Right-wing money has transformed that country, which was progressive, into a deeply regressive country.

    Dame Angela Eagle

    There is increasing evidence of that kind of global network operating in a reactionary manner. The Global Philanthropy Project reports that the anti-gender movement outspent the LGBT+ rights movement by three to one between 2013 and 2017, deploying $3.7 billion of resource, and creating an extensive network of organisations to push their divisive, pernicious agenda. Key funders were based in the USA and Europe, with Russian oligarchs playing a key role in Europe. We know that Putin talks about this a lot; we know that Orbán talks about it a lot. We know that in the Spanish election such anti-trans rhetoric is being used by the Opposition.

    Martin Docherty-Hughes (West Dunbartonshire) (SNP)

    There is an issue about how that money is financed: about the relationship between financing dark money and extreme right-wing propaganda and possibly the use of Scottish limited partnerships. Does the hon. Lady agree that it is time the Government got a grip on that?

    Dame Angela Eagle

    Speaking personally, and not as someone on the Treasury Bench—I have no idea what their view would be—I agree with the hon. Gentleman. Scottish limited partnerships are an obvious loophole that needs to be closed much sooner rather than later, and he is correct to point it out.

    After all this, it is not a coincidence that the American Civil Liberties Union has revealed that by April this year—not the end of this year, but April—417 anti-LGBT+ Bills had been introduced in state legislatures across the United States, and 283 were education-related Bills. There are increasing numbers of so-called “don’t say gay” Bills that, section 28-like, seek to ban discussion of trans issues in schools. Some “force outings” by mandating that parents should always be informed of any pronoun change at school, or any discussion about it, because they somehow perpetrate the narrative that schools are secretly teaching children to be trans and not to tell their parents. Others ban drag performances; still others ban the pride flag being flown from any public building, and threaten to prosecute parents who allow their children to change pronouns and live in the gender that they wish to live in. Even if that is parental choice, they seek to legislate to go into people’s homes and stop that happening. These are not nice, benign Bills; they are increasingly extreme. Almost all those proposals—not quite all of them—are now being suggested in the UK, with the current exception of the ban on drag, although there have been some far-right demonstrations against “drag story time” events in Britain.

    We need to say from this Chamber that the way forward is empathy, not division; it is understanding different and diverse people, and what they need to thrive in society. It is about understanding, not fear, and respect for the right of everyone to live with dignity in an inclusive and diverse society. Pride is about that.

  • Elliot Colburn – 2023 Speech on Pride Month

    Elliot Colburn – 2023 Speech on Pride Month

    The speech made by Elliot Colburn, the Conservative MP for Carshalton and Wellington, in the House of Commons on 15 June 2023.

    I beg to move,

    That this House has considered Pride Month.

    Thank you very much, Mr Deputy Speaker. I associate myself with the comments you have just made.

    As one of the co-chairs of the all-party parliamentary group on global lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT+) rights, very ably co-chaired by the hon. Member for Wallasey (Dame Angela Eagle), I wish everyone a very happy Pride Month indeed. I have looked over some of the Hansard records of Pride debates we have had in this place over the course of the past few years, and I think it is always right and positive to start with the good news and the progress that we have made—not only in the UK but globally—towards further equality for LGBT+ people around the world. Last year and the year so far have been no exceptions, with new conversion therapy bans brought in around the world and more countries achieving decriminalisation.

    However, sadly, we meet here against the backdrop of a very worrying and concerning backwards step in many parts of the world, where we are seeing attacks against LGBT+ people—not just where we might expect them, but here in the UK as well. I will touch on some of those attacks throughout the course of my speech. Having looked at Hansard records of Pride debates since the start of this Parliament—they have become an annual tradition—I note that a lot of the concerns that were raised in those debates are, sadly, still very much relevant today. We have not yet seen enough action on some of the points we have raised, and indeed, some points I want to raise today are new.

    I will start with the global perspective. I reiterate the good news that we have seen new conversion therapy bans and decriminalisation. That is to be welcomed, but it has to considered alongside the extremely serious and worrying backwards steps and the anti-human- rights agenda that we are seeing in many parts of the world. The best example we can give of that is the Anti- Homosexuality Bill that Uganda has shamefully just passed. I know full well that that the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has expressed its deep concern and is having conversations, and I appreciate its efforts. Again, to touch on a positive, I have seen examples of British missions around the world doing incredible work, liaising with activists on the ground, sometimes in extremely difficult circumstances. Our ambassadors and the mission staff around the world are to be congratulated. However, I urge the Government to go further by ensuring that this is a foreign policy objective and an aid objective; that they are using every tool at their disposal to influence change and support activists in very difficult circumstances, and indeed to support those who will inevitably try to flee such discrimination.

    The Bill in Uganda carries the death penalty. We know full well that people will be scared for their lives, and we need to make sure that we are there for them, not just in Uganda but in the many other places where we are seeing backward steps on LGBT+ rights. I hope the Minister can give us some assurance that he is having conversations with the FCDO and that decriminalisation, stopping legislation of that kind, and tackling discrimination against LGBT+ people around the world remain foreign policy objectives for this Government. I commend the good work that I have seen missions do.

    To bring the debate back to home, I want to repeat a lot of what has been said in previous Pride debates—we have to say it again, sadly, because we have not seen progress. The obvious thing to start with is conversion practices and conversion therapy. We have been raising this issue for years now and a Bill has been promised several times, but we are still waiting for the draft Bill to be published. The Government have cross-party support to get the Bill through the House, and to get it through quickly.

    I remind the House and those watching that every single day in the UK, right now, people are being subjected to dehumanising torture—that is essentially what conversion practices amount to—but they are without recourse to justice because those practices are perfectly legal at the moment. It is urgent that we act with speed to bring forward that legislation as soon as possible, so I hope the Minister can give us an update. I know that we spoke about this during business questions, but I hope he will be able to tell us a little more about the timetable for the conversion practices Bill. I can guarantee him massive cross-party support to get it through this House.

    Another issue that we have raised before but again needs focus is the increase in LGBT+ hate crime across the United Kingdom, and particularly the level of hate crime towards transgender people—I will touch on the toxicity around trans issues a bit later.

    Janet Daby (Lewisham East) (Lab)

    I thank the hon. Member for giving way and for making such a significant opening speech. Over 24% of young people experiencing homelessness identify as LGBTQ+. Does he agree that the Government need to do more to address this issue, and that one of the ways of doing so would be to improve the monitoring of gender identity and sexuality in housing and homelessness services?

    Elliot Colburn

    I am grateful to the hon. Lady for that intervention, and I do think she is right. Perhaps the Minister could update us on the conversations he is having with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities on the issue, because it is a fact that around a quarter of all young homeless people identify as LGBT+. We know full well what the reasons are: they are fleeing unsupportive households, but many do not know where to go for support, do not have the capacity to access support, or—for whatever reason—do not get that help and support. It is a massive cohort of people, so I hope the Minister can tell us a little more about the conversations that the Government Equalities Office and DLUHC are having to tackle that specific issue. I thank the hon. Lady for raising it.

    I want to touch on something that has appeared on the horizon since our last Pride Month debate: the Government’s recent announcement on their review into relationship and sex education in schools. I do have concerns, which I know are shared by many in the education sector and further afield—this also relates to the Department for Education’s new trans guidance for schools—that the RSE review will lead to a backwards step and will, potentially, bring back section 28 by the back door, which we do not want. Section 28 is something that our party had to apologise for, and we have come so far since that moment. We do not want to see it brought back. Many might say, “That could never happen,” but I ask colleagues to look to the United States, where several states have introduced section 28-style legislation. We cannot allow that to happen here in the United Kingdom.

    I therefore urge the Minister to give us some assurance that the RSE review will not break our pledge to ensure that RSE is mandatory, because it is not just about LGBT+ people; it also teaches about consent, it teaches women and girls about healthy relationships and to avoid sexual violence where possible, and it teaches boys not to avoid dangerous behaviour. RSE is a great achievement that we should be proud of. We should not be shy about the fact that this Government introduced it. The House should send a strong message that we will not accept a watering down of those protections.

    James Sunderland (Bracknell) (Con)

    Last weekend, I popped into Bracknell for the inaugural Pride event. As a proud LGBTQ+ champion, it was great to see so many people there. What struck me, aside from the fantastic organisation from Luke, Brad, Bracknell Forest Council and many others, was that it was an excellent party. Does my hon. Friend agree that we should be celebrating inclusion and diversity?

    Elliot Colburn

    I am grateful to my hon. Friend for that intervention. [Interruption.] I heard from a sedentary position that gay parties are the best parties, and I absolutely have to agree. Pride is a celebration. We describe it in many different ways, but we come together and we celebrate, and we are proud of who we are, so I am grateful to him for attending that event in Bracknell and I completely agree.

    I also hope that the Government will not be tempted by the calls from some to out trans kids to their parents. I benefited, as I know did so many people who went to school at the same time as me, or before or after, from the safe environment that schools provided to talk about these things without fear of it getting back to a household that may not necessarily be supportive. I was lucky; I was naive at the time when I came out, and I should have known that my parents would be absolutely supportive, which they were, but school provided that safe and non-judgmental environment for me to be able to talk about things, and I know that has been valued by so many others. I understand the need to make decisions about a child’s welfare in correspondence with parents— I do not think anyone objects to that—but the idea of outing trans people to their parents is dangerous, because many families will not be understanding and supportive, sadly. We need to ensure that schools remain a safe place for LGBT+ pupils.

    I will touch on the current toxicity around the trans debate—it would be churlish not to talk about it in some detail. Sadly, that toxicity is something that we have had to speak about in Pride debates, and I know that many other colleagues will want to talk about it today. I fear that we as a Parliament, and the institutions we represent, have completely lost control of the conversation, which is being imported from other parts of the world and which often has completely nonsensical and irrelevant arguments brought into it. At its heart is a very vulnerable group of people who are already marginalised and who are now being further demonised and pulled into a national discussion that they did not ask for.

    Christine Jardine (Edinburgh West) (LD)

    The hon. Member makes an important point. Specifically on that toxic and damaging debate that we have seen in this country, particularly over the past year, does he agree that we have to somehow persuade everyone involved to dial down the rhetoric, to be more reasonable and to listen to one another? I have absolutely no problem personally with gender recognition reform or the legislation that was passed by the Scottish Parliament, but I also understand that there are people with genuine concerns. By not listening to them, we have inadvertently dialled up the toxicity, and the people suffering are the trans community.

    Elliot Colburn

    The hon. Lady is absolutely right. If we do not dial down the rhetoric, calm that debate down and listen to each other, we will only ever hear those with the loudest voices and those who scream the loudest. The Women and Equalities Committee, of which I am proud to be a member, ran an inquiry on this space not that long ago. One of our conclusions, funnily enough, was that there was a huge amount of agreement, so we were perplexed, when drawing up our conclusions, as to why there should be such anger. It did not seem impossible to us that a way forward could be found, so I hope the Government can update us on what they plan to do to try to dial down the rhetoric in this space.

    Dame Angela Eagle (Wallasey) (Lab)

    The hon. Gentleman has been opening the debate with his usual common sense and insight, but has he thought that the toxicity of this debate is deliberately created by those who wish to cause fear and then use that to cause division? Then they can victimise already vulnerable people in a way that is designed to increase the toxicity and fear, rather than dial it down.

    Elliot Colburn

    I am grateful to the hon. Lady, who co-chairs the all-party parliamentary group, for that intervention. She is absolutely right. We see this issue being purposefully used, sadly.

    That brings me to one of my final remarks in the debate. This issue is not just about trans people or the LGBT+ community more widely; there is a clear and concerted anti-human-rights agenda, and it will not stop at trans people alone. It will move on, as we have seen in the United States, to attacks on women’s reproductive rights, and it will go on to the rest of the LGBT+ community and then other parts of the equality space as well. The idea that this is just a discussion on trans rights is nonsense; it already permeates a lot further and it will continue to do so. We need to be able to call that out for what it is.

    That is not to say, however, that there are not, as the hon. Member for Edinburgh West (Christine Jardine) has just said, genuine concerns that people are absolutely right to express. It is our job as parliamentarians to help navigate those conversations and to come up with good legislation and good ways forward, but we need to be setting the standard in this place, and we must not allow Parliament to further that agenda. I can see by looking around the room that we will not have that today, which is reassuring, but I hope that colleagues who are not in this debate will take note and recognise that we need to be responsible for what we say, for dialling down the rhetoric and for making sure we can find a way forward, because the current status quo is just going to crumble; it cannot sustain. It is just driving up hatred and anger, and the longer that continues, the more dangerous things can become.

    Having said that, we have seen good progress being made not just in the past year, but in the decades that preceded it. I feel very lucky and grateful to be able to be an openly gay man serving in Parliament and living in the United Kingdom. I hope that we do not get tempted by some of those siren voices and slip backwards. I look forward to hearing other colleagues’ contributions and an update from the Minister on the Government’s work to ensure that Britain remains one of the best places in the world to be openly LGBT+.

  • Martin Docherty-Hughes – 2023 Speech on the Armoured Cavalry Programme – Sheldon Review

    Martin Docherty-Hughes – 2023 Speech on the Armoured Cavalry Programme – Sheldon Review

    The speech made by Martin Docherty-Hughes, the SNP defence spokesperson, in the House of Commons on 15 June 2023.

    Let me associate myself with the comments about the former Member for Hampstead and Kilburn—a great actor, but, I have to say to Labour colleagues, a great socialist, who will be deeply missed. I express my condolences to Labour group Members—a great loss to socialism.

    I have sat on the Defence Select Committee for almost five years. I have sat through enough evidence sessions and seen enough gloss poured over the evident shortcomings of this programme by Ministers and officials alike to treat today’s statement with much scepticism. Despite the fact that we are seeing various cheaper competitor platforms to Ajax tested in the theatre in Ukraine before our very eyes, we continue with what I think is an absolute classic 24-carat bespoke option straight out of Main Building’s fevered imagination. Today’s news is telling us that Ajax will not be ready until the end of the decade—the Minister may correct me if I am wrong—meaning that a full 20 years will have passed between concept and deployment. That is, frankly, unforgivable.

    Yet so many of us across the Chamber would tell us today that it does not have to be like this. To give just one allied example, Norway has recently terminated its contract for the NH90 helicopters after problems were found, and will return all those helicopters while demanding a full refund. What is stopping the MOD from doing the same with Ajax and General Dynamics?

    As we have talked about Ukraine, if we eventually ever see any of these vehicles deployed in the field, would the Minister be happy for the UK to supply them to a country fighting for its survival against a technically advanced adversary?

    James Cartlidge

    I did not have the pleasure of appearing before the hon. Gentleman in the Select Committee. Obviously, we bring forward this capability to ensure that it can add huge capability on the frontline when it really matters—that is what it is being tested for. That is why it is really good news that the Army is now training on that vehicle at Salisbury Plain. Of course, that has happened much later than we wanted. That is why we are here and have the Sheldon report. Ultimately, we want to improve our acquisitions system, but procurement can be complex, even for simple things such as ferries, as the Scottish Government have themselves discovered.

  • Tobias Ellwood – 2023 Speech on the Armoured Cavalry Programme – Sheldon Review

    Tobias Ellwood – 2023 Speech on the Armoured Cavalry Programme – Sheldon Review

    The speech made by Tobias Ellwood, the Conservative MP for Bournemouth East, in the House of Commons on 15 June 2023.

    May I immediately associate myself with your kind words about Glenda Jackson, Madam Deputy Speaker?

    We now have in the Chamber not one, but three current or former procurement Ministers who bear the scars of this project. I am pleased that we are able to discuss the matter so openly and I commend the recent work that the MOD has done to get on top of the issue.

    Ajax is now a case study that the MOD and DNS should use on how not to do procurement. This is all about the British Army’s recce vehicle. The current one being used, the Scimitar, was introduced in 1971. It is good to hear that the soldiers the Minister met said that the replacement is better than the last—that is brilliant, because it was built in 1971. Ajax’s journey has been miserable. It started in 2010 and the delivery date was 2017, yet it is not expected to enter service until 2030. Something very serious has gone wrong.

    I absolutely welcome Clive Sheldon’s report. The Committee will look into that in more detail and, rather fortuitously, a Sub-Committee study on procurement, by my right hon. Friend the Member for Rayleigh and Wickford (Mr Francois), is currently under way. I am sure that he will have more words on how we will digest the report in more detail.

    The Minister covered some of the issues. Concerns include the relationships between different entities within, or associated with, the MOD. The senior responsible officer has been criticised for not being a single point of contact or owning the actual project itself but having to have a number of projects going concurrently. Concerns got stuck because of people taking a rigid view of their remits. It is not just with Ajax that there is a problem; there is also with the land warfare capability. We have similar problems with the main battle tank and the armoured fighting vehicle. I hope that those problems will be addressed when the defence Command Paper comes out.

    James Cartlidge

    I am grateful to my right hon. Friend the Chairman of the Select Committee. Of course, we are absolutely committed to engaging with his Committee and, indeed, with the Sub-Committee, before which I will appear next week. I was born in 1974. He makes a striking point about the existing vehicle being from 1971—it is the same age as my elder brother. I take his point that one might therefore expect servicemen to say that it is night and day.

    I put great store by meeting those on the frontline, and I will always continue to do that. It was a great privilege to go to Bovington. One of the soldiers I sat next to in the Ares version had been in a Challenger 2 when it was hit by an IED—I think it was in Iraq or Afghanistan; he did not say. He felt confidence in the protection. It is so important that we interact with the soldiers on the frontline. Ultimately, that is the point: we want to deliver a better acquisitions system for them and I look forward to working with my right hon. Friend’s Committee to that end.

  • Chris Evans – 2023 Speech on the Armoured Cavalry Programme – Sheldon Review

    Chris Evans – 2023 Speech on the Armoured Cavalry Programme – Sheldon Review

    The speech made by Chris Evans, the Shadow Defence Minister, in the House of Commons on 15 June 2023.

    Before I start, if you will allow me, Madam Deputy Speaker, I want to pay tribute to Glenda Jackson, our former colleague, given the sad news that she recently passed away. She was a doughty champion for social justice and was the greatest actor of this or any other generation. I am sure further tributes will be paid in the coming days.

    What the Sheldon review has shown without a shadow of a doubt is that Ajax is the biggest procurement failure for a decade. The review is beyond damning. For a report to state,

    “Reporting was at times lacking, or unclear, or overly optimistic. That led to senior personnel and Ministers being surprised to discover in late 2020 and early 2021 that the programme was at much greater risk than they had appreciated”,

    is frankly embarrassing.

    There is no place to hide any longer. The failure to manage this contract was on this Conservative Government’s watch. It was they who allowed the relationship with General Dynamics to break down to such an extent that every time Ajax was mentioned, here or in the press, there was fevered speculation that the contract was about to be cancelled. That has caused anxiety for the Army and above all for the workers in General Dynamics in both Merthyr Tydfil and Oakdale in my own Islwyn constituency. Even the threat of losing 400 jobs would be devastating for the south Wales economy.

    This programme has cost £5.5 billion and has been running for 13 years, but has yet to deliver one deployable vehicle. If this was the private sector, heads would roll, so I ask the Minister this: has any action been taken against anyone responsible for this mess? What new procedures have already been put in place on other major programmes to stop similar mistakes happening? Ministers must ensure that our NATO obligations are met in full, but, whether it is Ajax, delays to Wedgetail or a modern war-fighting division, NATO must have concerns. Have any been raised with the Government about Ajax?

    I well remember the sense of excitement from workers at Oakdale when this contract was signed in 2010, just after I was elected. The Ajax contract was then labelled a game changer, not only for south Wales, but for the Army. It is truly sad that we have arrived at a point where Ajax has become a byword for waste and incompetence.

    Workers at General Dynamics should have been listened to, but they were not. There was a

    “lack of appreciation of diverse and contrary voices, especially from those working on the ‘shopfloor’. These voices were not fully included, and were too easily dismissed.”

    Those are not my words, but the words of the report. Perhaps if workers had been listened to, we would not be standing here now.

    As the Minister knows, Ajax is not an isolated case: 37 out of 39 defence equipment contracts being run by the Ministry of Defence are marked red or amber by the National Audit Office. That includes Morpheus, which is extremely important to our armed forces. Have the problems with that programme’s communications system been fixed, or are they unfixable? What contingency plans are being made for Morpheus?

    For a contract as important as Ajax, with so much speculation around it, it is amazing that we have not had an oral statement on Ajax since December 2021. For too long, the Government have avoided scrutiny on this issue. On this and other future contracts, will the Minister commit to giving regular updates to the House? We are, after all, ensuring soldiers’ safety—the most important thing about the contract—and spending taxpayers’ money. I find myself in agreement with the Minister when he says that change has to come. It is not a moment too soon.

    James Cartlidge

    I begin by agreeing with the hon. Gentleman on Glenda Jackson; I do not think she was in the House when I was here, but she was an amazing actress and I join in his sentiments and echo them entirely.

    I recognise that the hon. Gentleman is not just the shadow spokesman but has a clear constituency interest, and I respect that. He talks about fevered speculation and the impact on the workforce, and I totally understand that. We do not want to see that. He talks about coming to the House: I am here today to be absolutely clear with everyone about the latest position. In fact, my colleague the Paymaster General regularly updated the House on the position around Ajax when he was the Minister. My predecessor, now the Lord Chancellor, also issued a written statement earlier this year that was very detailed about the programme, so I think we have been consistent in updating the House.

    On some of the hon. Gentleman’s specific questions, he asked about action on individuals. What we said when commissioning this review was that disciplinary action would be taken only if there was evidence of gross misconduct, and Mr Sheldon found no evidence of misconduct, let alone gross misconduct. That is the clear reason why individual action has not been taken.

    In terms of action across programmes, I point the hon. Gentleman to the very significant investment by the Army of £70 million over the next 10 years in Army procurement programmes, including in the past two years a doubling in the number of SROs and a doubling of the amount of time that SROs spend on their responsible major projects. Those are significant investments.

    I also point out to the hon. Gentleman some of the improvements we have seen. I accept that we need to go further but, if I may draw a contrast, this is not the first review of acquisition. Bernard Gray issued an independent “Review of Acquisition for the Secretary of State for Defence” in 2009, which described a poorly performing procurement system. That review found that

    “the average programme overruns by 80% or c.5 years from the time specified at initial approval through to in service dates”,

    and that was under a previous Government.

    These problems have been around for some time and it is disappointing. I have pointed to the improvements we have seen, but let me be absolutely clear: the ultimate reason we have this report is to learn lessons and the way we respond to it is to deliver a fundamentally better acquisition system. I totally agree with the hon. Gentleman on that and I hope we can all work together to that end.

  • James Cartlidge – 2023 Statement on the Armoured Cavalry Programme – Sheldon Review

    James Cartlidge – 2023 Statement on the Armoured Cavalry Programme – Sheldon Review

    The statement made by James Cartlidge, the Minister for Defence Procurement, in the House of Commons on 15 June 2023.

    With permission, Madam Deputy Speaker, I would like to make a statement to update the House on the review conducted by Clive Sheldon KC on the lessons to be learned from the armoured cavalry programme, which is the Army programme centred on the Ajax vehicles. The Defence Secretary has previously acknowledged that the programme was a troubled programme. Albeit that he has more recently announced that it has turned a corner, it is against the backdrop of concerns he had about the programme, and those of this House about what was known at the time of publishing the integrated review, that he commissioned an independent review by a senior legal figure to investigate the circumstances.

    In May last year, Clive Sheldon KC was appointed to lead a lessons learned review into the armoured cavalry programme. The review’s terms of reference were to

    “identify lessons and make recommendations to help Ministry of Defence (MOD) deliver major programmes more effectively in future, with a particular focus on how MOD shares and elevates issues across the Department.”

    An earlier Ministry of Defence report, by David King, specifically relating to the health and safety concerns about noise and vibration, was published in December 2021. We continue to make good progress on implementing the recommendations from that report, some of which are echoed in Mr Sheldon’s review.

    Mr Sheldon submitted his report to Ministers on 19 May, and I am today publishing that report, unredacted, on gov.uk, and placing a copy in the Library of the House. I wish to formally thank Mr Sheldon and his team for the painstaking work that they have undertaken to enable us to better understand how the MOD can improve the governance, culture and leadership of our major programmes. They interviewed some 70 people and considered tens of thousands of pages of evidence.

    The resulting report makes for difficult reading, highlighting a number of systemic, cultural and institutional problems across several areas of the Department. These problems include: fragmented relationships and the conflicting priorities of the senior responsible owner role. It also points to a reticence to raise, and occasionally by seniors to listen to, genuine problems in a timely, evidenced manner.

    We accept these findings and most of Mr Sheldon’s 24 formal recommendations, with 15 accepted and nine accepted in principle. Crucially, the review did not find that either Ministers or Parliament were misled. Equally, the review team did not see any evidence of misconduct by any individual, let alone gross misconduct, and nothing that would justify disciplinary action. It is, though, true that many of the behaviours highlighted in the report are far from ideal, but in many cases they have already been recognised and acted on, both specifically on the armoured cavalry programme as well as across the Department.

    Where work is not already under way to implement a recommendation, we commit to making the necessary changes at pace. In the interest of time, Madam Deputy Speaker, I will address the recommendations in the themes set out by Mr Sheldon in his executive summary, rather than going through each of the recommendations.

    A number of recommendations relate to MOD’s internal relationships, including with the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory. Considerable effort has already been made to address these issues within and beyond the Ajax programme. This has resulted in much improved working and reporting arrangements, in particular with the Defence Equipment & Support organisation and also the newly established acquisition safety cell that advises the Investment Approvals Committee on equipment safety matters. Escalation routes also exist for DSTL through the chief science officer where concerns are not acted on.

    Another area of focus is SROs. I know that many colleagues are interested in this point. We fully agree with the need to improve how senior responsible owners are supported and much work has gone into upskilling and supporting SROs, ensuring that they have the time and space to focus on delivering their programmes and can build skills through the Major Projects Leadership Academy.

    Today, four in every five of our major project SROs are committing at least half their time to leading their programmes—half the Army’s 19 SROs dedicate 100% of their time. We also agree in principle with Mr Sheldon’s presumption for a minimum tenure, subject to compatibility with employment law.

    Finally, the report comments extensively on a culture that led to issues not being escalated and makes recommendations to improve that and the flow of information. Transparency has improved since the period of this report. For Ajax, there are detailed updates through the SRO to Ministers that ensure the potential issues are exposed early should they arise in the future. Processes will be further strengthened through the defence acquisition operating model and guidance. Work is also under way to implement a project delivery data strategy to strengthen the use of data to both support performance reporting and assist in early identification of issues. Of course, the main aim of commissioning this review was to learn lessons to improve procurement—not just on Ajax, but across the MOD’s programmes.

    Ultimately, the core of our intent is to ensure that the equipment we procure for the British armed forces is of the highest possible standard and, furthermore, that our service personnel have faith in the system and the taxpayer has faith in our spending of money from the public purse. Quite simply, we need to deliver change across the Department, turning widespread desire for acquisition reform into tangible reality, in particular driving increased pace and agility into acquisition, so that we can keep pace with technology and maintain our competitive edge.

    Although I recognise the many challenges in this programme to date and the need to learn lessons, I would stress that there is already intense work under way in the Department—especially at DE&S—to improve performance, with encouraging signs. For example, between December 2020 to December 2022 we saw a reduction from 6.1 years to 5.1 years in the time that it takes to go from outline business case to delivering equipment into the hands of our armed forces.

    In further positive news, I hope the House will welcome the significant progress made to recover the Ajax programme. I can confirm that, as of Tuesday afternoon, the Household Cavalry has been undergoing standard Army field training on Salisbury plain in a range of Ajax vehicles. Focused on individual and crew training, this step marks the restarting of British Army training on these sophisticated vehicles, and I hope underlines that this project really has turned the corner. Indeed, last Friday I had the great privilege of visiting Bovington to experience the Ajax vehicle at first hand.

    I am pleased to report that the soldiers I met described the vehicle and its capabilities as “night and day”—a phrase used repeatedly—compared with their current equipment. In describing Ajax’s strengths, the soldiers I spoke to emphasised the platform’s high mobility, increased firepower from the new cannon and a highly sophisticated sensor suite that really helps them do their job, representing in totality a very real and positive step change in capability—all packaged in a vehicle with high levels of crew protection and survivability. As training increases across other field Army units on the 44 vehicles already delivered, in parallel General Dynamics’s personnel in Wales continue to run their production lines to build the operationally deployable vehicles, with the end goal of 589 fully operational vehicles by 2029.

    To conclude, I reiterate my gratitude to Mr Sheldon and his team for their considerable efforts and for distilling his findings into clear lessons and recommendations for the future. Our focus now is on understanding and applying those lessons, ensuring that they are implemented in the armoured cavalry and other major defence programmes, as well as ensuring that we deliver the game-changing capability that Ajax will provide to the British Army as quickly as possible. I commend this statement to the House.

  • Vladimir Putin – 2023 Comments on the Death of Silvio Berlusconi

    Vladimir Putin – 2023 Comments on the Death of Silvio Berlusconi

    IMPORTANT NOTE. The text of these comments from the Russian President are for informational purposes. Under Putin’s leadership, the country of Russia has started a war on the country of Ukraine and he is currently being investigated for war crimes.

    The comments made by Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia, on 12 June 2023.

    Pavel Zarubin: Mr President, hello.

    Excuse me, can I have just a minute of your time, please? Right before the ceremony [for presenting the Hero of Labour medals and the Russian Federation National Awards], tragic news arrived on the passing of Silvio Berlusconi. You had special friendly ties with him. Can I ask you for a few words about his role in Russian-Italian relations and in global politics?

    President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Yes. He was indeed a politician of European, and it can be said, of global scale. There are few people like him in the international arena nowadays. He was a good friend of our people and did a lot to develop business-like and friendly relations between Russia and the European countries.

    He initiated relations between Russia and the North Atlantic Alliance. It was with his assistance and on his initiative that respective interaction mechanisms were created.

    But he was primarily Italy’s politician, of course. He was an unusual person for a politician because he was very sincere and open-hearted. He also had a privilege that politicians of this scale lack – the privilege of saying what he meant.

    I am very sorry. I want to express heartfelt sorrow and condolences to Italian people and all of Mr Berlusconi’s family and friends. It is a great loss not only for Italy but also for global politics.

  • Steve Barclay – 2023 Speech at the NHS Confed Expo

    Steve Barclay – 2023 Speech at the NHS Confed Expo

    The speech made by Steve Barclay, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, on 15 June 2023.

    Thank you, Matthew [Taylor] – it’s great to be with you today.

    Tuesday’s incident in Nottingham has shocked us all.

    I am sure everyone’s thoughts have been with the families of those who have lost their lives so tragically and all who have been affected.

    And I wanted to take this opportunity to thank in particular everyone in the NHS who responded from the ambulance crews and paramedics – to the staff at the Queen’s Medical Centre.

    I also recognise that this week brings additional challenges to many in the room due to the industrial action and I acknowledge that this creates additional pressures for you and your teams.

    Many people will be working particularly hard to ensure the impact on patients is mitigated as far as possible.

    And I know this work comes after an incredibly challenging period.

    While the World Health Organisation has announced that the Covid-19 pandemic is officially over, its after effects are still very much being felt – including the scale of delays it has caused for patients waiting for treatment and the pressures on staff.

    Thank you to everyone – across the whole health and care system – for the way you’re rising to meet these challenges.

    My motivation as Secretary of State is clear: to enable people to access the right care faster.

    Because when for example I think of cancer treatment, I am thinking of the constituent in her 20s with a young daughter who was told not to worry about her symptoms, only to later find that the cancer had spread.

    I challenge myself as to what more I can do in this job to get the right treatment to people like her as fast as possible.

    That challenge sits at the heart of our three recovery plans.

    And whether it’s electives, UEC or primary care, patients are – rightly – demanding improvements.

    They also want to see care that is better joined up.

    And with our Integrated Care Systems now taking proper statutory form, we are moving in the right direction.

    Last August, I visited the Jean Bishop Integrated Care Centre in Hull which is one of a number of fantastic examples of how health and social care can come together under one roof.

    NHS staff, care workers and volunteers are working to care for local people, including keeping thousands of frail and elderly patients out of hospital and helping them live at home with the independence and dignity they deserve.

    And with ICSs now fully operational, we can make this type of approach more commonplace across the country.

    Despite the difficulties we face, there are signs of progress.

    On electives we’ve virtually eliminated waits of over 2 years, and we’ve reduced 18 month waits by over 90%,

    But we know the overall number remains high.

    This has a material impact, like, for example, for the self-employed worker who is waiting for their operation before they return to work.

    This is why we are taking further action to expand patient choice and making information on patient choice much more transparent.

    On urgent and emergency care, ambulance handover delays have improved.

    But again we know it has been particularly difficult in the past few days.

    In primary care, more appointments are being delivered by GPs and the wider clinical team, with on average an extra 20 per practice per day.

    But demand remains high.

    I recognise many in this room will have played a direct part in bringing these additional services to patients.

    Alongside these plans, I know other important work continues apace.

    You will have heard yesterday from Amanda about the improvements in cancer, including the doubling of cancer checks.

    In the 21st century, with the technology at our disposal, we can go further.

    Thanks to your hard work, we’re already moving in the right direction.

    Take lung cancer as one example.

    Through our screening programme, we are now seeing more diagnoses at stage one and stage two in the most deprived communities.

    This is a positive step and a practical example of how we are addressing health inequalities.

    We’ve also made particular progress in areas like breast cancer and research this week shows that most women diagnosed in England will beat the disease.

    Now we must build on this, by getting people potentially life-saving tests, checks, and scans more quickly and bringing those checks closer to people.

    Community Diagnostics Centres are an example of this.

    There are now 108 in operation, and they’ve delivered more than 4 million tests, checks and scans and they will help us build on these hard-won gains in the years to come.

    Now, I don’t think there’s anything original about a Secretary of State being fixated on tech.

    But for me, this isn’t tech for tech’s sake.

    It is the way to get care to people quicker – and do so at scale.

    Take for example, the way we’re expanding the NHS App. Contrary to what you may have heard from one speaker yesterday, over 2.4 million repeat prescriptions were ordered in April alone.

    Alongside a quarter of a million primary care appointments that were booked on the app, with numbers increasing rapidly.

    Tech is also the way we can tackle the many frustrations that I hear from staff – and that I’m sure many of you in the room hear too.

    The reason I care about tech is simple: it improves outcomes and helps you do your jobs.

    And let me say this: when budgets are tight, tech is often the first thing to go.

    That is not my approach.

    I am protecting the tech budget – and those key investments that will help us in the long term.

    From ensuring every NHS Trust uses electronic patient records and investing more in bed management systems.

    To the significant investment we’re making in our new data platform.

    And digitising the front line – from speeding up staff logins to staff passporting.

    Because I am acutely aware that when it comes to tech it is often how we make the job of local teams easier that that really matters.

    Despite what you may have read, I believe strongly in devolving decision-making.

    Equally, I think this should sit alongside greater transparency.

    We need more devolved decision making to enable a place based approach with decisions taken closer to patient need.

    Equally there are areas of great innovation but we have a challenge in scaling that so it is widely adopted. And this challenge is reflected in too wide a variation in performance between similar areas.

    For me the opportunity is to devolve much more and to trust local decision makers. In return to expect more meaningful transparency.

    Let me give you a practical example of where I have applied this, even where it could be uncomfortable.

    I listened to those suggesting we publish the number of patients waiting for 12 hours or more from arrival in Emergency Departments.

    Together with NHS England colleagues, we acted on that and from April we started publishing that information.

    This is particularly relevant in the context of mental health patients, who we know are at greater risk of longer waits in A&E, and we’re taking targeted action to reduce that risk to reduce that risk to reduce that risk to reduce that risk.

    Including the roll out of mental health ambulances, mental health cafes and mental health crisis hubs.

    NHS leaders have been clear with me about what they want to see from government.

    Fewer targets and more trust in the system.

    As Matthew referenced, we published a new NHS mandate this morning which reflects this.

    For over a decade, governments have used the mandate to make asks of the system.

    Sometimes these asks have been excessive, with long documents with many pages full of tests and targets.

    I’m sure you won’t be alone if you’re sat there thinking: it doesn’t matter I don’t read it anyway.

    But what we’ve done this year is make it short and clear, setting out our priorities:

    Cutting waiting lists; the three recovery plans; tech; and workforce.

    It gives a clear direction and backs it up with the freedom and flexibility to deliver it.

    We know that change happens when people are trusted, have a common purpose and are free to innovate.

    It was something that Matthew highlighted yesterday as a lesson coming out of Covid. And it is something I very much agree with.

    Trusting ICSs with greater freedom from devolved decision-making alongside greater transparency was one of the reasons we commissioned the Hewitt Review. Thank you to all those who contributed to it.

    Before I wrap up, I just want to reflect that – as we sprint to address the present it would be easy to lose sight of foundations we can lay now to build hope for the future.

    Some – such as the Long-Term Workforce Plan – have been well debated by colleagues in this room.

    It offers significant opportunities not just to boost overall numbers, but to better use the full skills mix and deliver training and career progression in completely different ways.

    And there are other opportunities – such as the rapid developments in AI – that are exciting and fast-moving and generating much interest.

    One example of the work we’re doing with AI in the department is how we can use AI to improve patient safety in maternity services.

    And we’re also working closely with the life science industry to enable both population-level treatments and more bespoke and targeted medicine.

    And this is reflected in our recent deals agreed with Moderna and BioNTech, Lord O’Shaughnessy’s review to speed up and expand the adoption of clinical research trials we launched last month.

    And indeed the Chancellor’s citing of Life Sciences as one of his key growth sectors.

    The NHS has changed massively over the last 75 years, all while remaining true to its founding principles.

    Covid showed that we can deliver change very rapidly when it matters and that trust in local systems to make decisions allows them the freedom to better adopt innovation.

    It is the culture of innovation which gives us a strong foundation for the next 75 years.

    In closing, I want to reinforce my message today on the importance of trusting integrated care systems more.

    What that means for you is:

    • Greater freedom
    • Fewer targets from the centre
    • More meaningful transparency on performance

    That is the approach I am taking as we work with you on our shared challenge of making it easier for patients to access the care they need.

    Thank you.

  • Chloe Smith – 2023 Speech at London Tech Week

    Chloe Smith – 2023 Speech at London Tech Week

    The speech made by Chloe Smith, the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, at London Tech Week on 14 June 2023.

    Thank you for that warm introduction, Alex [Webb].

    And a big thanks to London Tech Week, not just for inviting me to join you today, but for hosting another outstanding event.

    One that’s convened the best and brightest of the global tech sector, that’s showcased the very cutting-edge of British innovation, design and technology, and that’s brought together many of the world’s greatest thinkers to debate some of the most pressing questions of our digital age.

    Founders Forum, Informa, London & Partners and Tech London Advocates all deserve credit for ensuring that this London Tech Week, now in its tenth year, has sent the strongest of signals – that when it comes to tech, the UK is fully open for business.

    I’ve certainly seen that first-hand in the events I’ve been part of this week.

    Whether it’s the relaunch of Silicon Valley Bank UK as HSBC Innovation Banking and the multi-million-pound investment it’s feeding into our home-grown Fintech, Life Sciences and Consumer businesses so they can scale up and grow.

    Or in our announcement of a new MoU between Australia and the UK on diversifying telecoms. An agreement that will boost the roll out of more 5g networks and safe, secure, superfast broadband to communities even in the most far-flung of communities.

    This week saw the announcement of our Smart Infrastructure Pilots Programme, helping councils in different parts of the country test new smart lamp posts that extend mobile coverage and increase connectivity for more homes and businesses than ever before.

    My colleague Oliver Dowden and I also hosted over 80 Indo-Pacific business leaders from unicorns and scale-ups at the London Stock Exchange for the market close earlier this week. An invaluable opportunity to strengthen a long-standing trading relationship worth over 250 billion dollars and growing.

    The UK Tech Sector’s Success

    Everyone here knows that in recent years, the UK has become one of the most competitive countries in the world for tech.

    We have the largest tech sector in Europe and the third largest in the world behind the US and China.

    Last year, we became just the third country to date with a tech sector valued at $1trillion.

    And it’s fair to say that when it comes to AI, Fintech and Bio-tech, the UK is consistently punching well above its weight, having created more billion dollar ‘Unicorn’ tech start-ups than Germany, France and Sweden combined.

    Our unique combination of world class talent, R&D capability, and pro-enterprise regulation means the UK is the best place anywhere in the world in which to start and grow a tech business.

    Growing the economy

    It’s these businesses which are making people’s lives better, spurring growth and creating employment opportunities that will unlock the full potential of communities right across the UK.

    Businesses such as Darktrace, who are using artificial intelligence to protect people against even the most sophisticated cyber-attacks…

    Companies like Quantinuum, who are harnessing the immense power of quantum technologies to build machines that eclipse conventional computers.

    Or semiconductor and software designers like Arm, in Cambridge. Pioneers in modern engineering and machine learning, whose CPUs are used in virtually all modern smartphones.

    So, we’ve come a long way together.

    But the Government is not complacent about what’s required to maintain the UK’s pole position in the global tech race.

    We know that there has to be a steady pipeline of investment over the coming years and that’s exactly what we’re providing.

    With £370 million of funding going towards five transformative technologies that are front and centre of the 21st century tech revolution: Quantum, AI, Bioengineering, Telecoms and Semiconductors.

    Investment that will bring profound benefits to our society in converting household waste into biofuels, in developing the next generation of green, self-driving cars and enhancing road safety, in new gene editing technologies to personalise medicine and support the early detection of diseases.

    Start-up businesses are being supported too through our £12 million Digital Growth Grant -run through Barclays Eagle Labs.

    Funding for specialised support to accelerate the growth of at least 22,000 UK tech startups through mentoring sessions, market research and insights, and guidance for budding tech entrepreneurs.

    We’re also fulfilling our commitment to spend £20 billion per annum in R&D by 2024/25 – with every £1 of public expenditure leveraging double the amount of private investment.

    And we’re keeping our promise to level up all parts of our United Kingdom by increasing public investment outside the greater South East by over a third. It means that cities like Newcastle which are hotbeds for tech start-ups right now can share in the UK’s success too.

    But you and I know that investment alone, however great, is no guarantee of success.

    That’s why, back in March, my department’s published its Science and Technology Framework – a bold 10-point plan to keep the UK at the forefront of global science and technology this decade.

    It’s a framework to ensure that researchers have access to the best physical and digital infrastructure that we leverage our post-Brexit freedoms to pursue pro-business regulation.

    And that we continue to showcase the UK’s towering science and tech strengths both here at home and abroad.

    It’s a Framework which recognises that innovation and technology are our future and are key to unlocking our long-term prosperity.

    We recognise, too, that in order for the UK to stay ahead of the pack, we need to develop a whole tech ‘ecosystem’ supported by smarter regulation, a greater focus on skills and training, and long-term industry-backed strategies.

    And I’m going to say more about what those ambitions look like in turn.

    Regulation

    When it comes to the regulatory environment, we said from the get-go that we wanted to make the UK a competitive, fair and open market for the tech industry.

    And we believe our Digital Markets Competition and Consumers Bill is helping us make that vision a reality by creating a more dynamic digital economy.

    It will ensure that businesses which rely on the biggest, most powerful tech firms, including the news publishing sector, are treated justly and aren’t strong armed with unfair terms and unfair contracts.

    Smaller digital firms will also find it much easier to enter new markets, without being crowded out by the biggest firms.

    And we’ve taken a similar, common-sense approach to the regulation of Artificial Intelligence.

    Countries all over the world are thinking long and hard about how they should prepare for a technological change so fast and so significant that it could redefine the way we work and live our lives.

    In contemplating AI, we’ve always said that governments must play their part to ensure the guard rails are there for this technology to develop in a safe, transparent and fair way.

    And here in the UK, as the Prime Minister rightly asserted at the beginning of this week, our strategy on AI is to lead at home; to lead overseas; and to lead change in our public services as well.

    We’ve committed to holding the first major global summit on AI safety this Autumn to develop an international framework. It will help ensure this technology develops in a reliable, safe and secure way.

    That’s complemented by £100 million of start-up funding for our new Foundation Model Taskforce which the Prime Minister announced earlier this year. A taskforce responsible for accelerating the UK’s capability in rapidly emerging types of artificial intelligence so that we remain globally competitive.

    We’ve published our AI White Paper showing how we intend to identify and address risks but also create a regulatory environment which fosters innovation and growth.

    Instead of targeting specific technologies, it focuses on the context in which AI is deployed and enables us to take a balanced approach.

    We recognise that using a chatbot, for example, to summarise a long article presents very different risks to using the same technology to provide medical advice. The rules governing one will be markedly different to the other.

    And this flexibility runs throughout our White Paper with a commitment to work in close partnership with regulators and business on sensible, pragmatic rules.

    Indeed, there’s still time for businesses and the public to join the debate on how we should best set the rules for regulating AI.

    Our consultation closes [next Wednesday] and I would encourage anyone with an interest in helping us shape the regulatory environment for this technology to submit their responses.

    Skills and talent

    So, creating the right conditions for our tech industry to freely innovate is vital.

    But so is ensuring the sector has access to the right talent and skills.

    I want the next generation to be equipped with everything they need to compete and thrive in the global economy.

    AI Scholarships

    That’s one of the reasons why we set up the Digital Skills Council last year, to consult the views of industry leaders. And to encourage investment in employer-led initiatives focused on upskilling and digital apprenticeships.

    That’s accompanied by a £30 million package to support a new generation of AI talent through scholarships, each worth £10,000 so that more young people can become masters in the technologies of tomorrow.

    This funding supports conversion courses for a diverse group of non-STEM students, allowing them to gain an MA in Artificial Intelligence and data science.

    UKRI Announcements

    And that’s not the only way we’re driving forward big improvements in hands-on training and education.

    Building on the Prime Minister’s announcement earlier this week of two new Turing AI World Leading Fellowships, my department is today announcing a £50 million package with UK Research and Innovation – funding for 42 new projects to explore the acceleration of responsible AI and machine learning.

    We’re backing a consortium led by the University of Southampton, spanning the whole of the UK, to create an international research and innovation ecosystem for responsible and trustworthy AI.

    And finally, we’re green-lighting a whole host of new UKRI projects for AI technologies that will help us reach our ambitious net zero targets.

    Projects to help decarbonise our transport systems, integrating renewable energy sources like wind power to make our farms and our rural communities more self-sufficient and kinder to the environment.

    Projects that will see a massive acceleration of energy efficient CO2 capture, especially in our new freeports and green freeports on the Scottish coast.

    And projects that will develop AI solutions to improve our country’s resilience against flooding and severe weather, all while hastening our journey to Net Zero.

    Research Ventures Catalyst

    We want to continue diversifying how cutting-edge science is funded too.

    With that in mind, I am delighted to announce that my department will shortly launch an open call for proposals to pilot new collaborative approaches for performing science in the UK.

    Backed by up to £50 million of government funding to drive investment and partnership with industry and the third sector, we want to catalyse new ideas and new ways of working with the potential to deliver transformational breakthroughs.

    We want to fund ideas that aren’t being adequately addressed elsewhere in the UK research landscape.

    I encourage researchers and innovators across all fields to consider applying when our call for proposals opens in a few weeks.

    Enabling core technologies

    With the right investment, the right regulation, the right skills and talent, I believe the UK is primed for a new era of innovation and growth.

    But to really shoot for the stars, we also need to do something else – we need to strategize for the long term.

    We need to consult industry experts and reflect fully on how we want to see some of our core technologies evolving not just over the next one or two years but over the next ten to fifteen years.

    Geospatial Strategy

    If we take geospatial technology, for example, we know that here again the UK is already a global trendsetter.

    We’re ranked second in the world for geospatial readiness and boast some of the best geospatial organisations going – Ordnance Survey, the Met Office and the UK Hydrographic Office, to say nothing of our brilliant research centres at universities like Edinburgh, Glasgow, Newcastle, Nottingham and Southampton.

    We want all organisations to take full advantage of the latest developments in location data and services including mobile apps.

    That’s why today I am announcing our new UK Geospatial Strategy 2030 to help us deliver on that objective and to secure the UK’s position as a geospatial world leader.

    The strategy includes three missions.

    The first is to embrace enabling technologies to accelerate geospatial innovation.

    Using anonymised population movement data and satellite imagery to help us design new homes, integrated transport systems, and improve the sustainability of cities so they better meet the needs of residents. It could also help our emergency services improve response times with more accurate understanding of where assistance is needed in real-time.

    The second mission is to drive greater use of geospatial applications and insights across the economy. Using location data, for example, to build a digital map of underground infrastructure so we can reduce disruption when pipes or cables need fixing, or to understand where we need to install more superfast charging points for long journeys with electric vehicles.

    The third mission is to build confidence in the future geospatial ecosystem – increasing the UK’s international standing through bringing together countries from around the world to share knowledge and insights so that we move geospatial technology forwards together.

    Conclusion

    So that’s what lies ahead.

    A government working hand in hand with our partners in industry, in academia, in global forums like London Tech Week to keep the UK at the forefront of this new digital frontier.

    A government that will proudly champion our world-leading science and tech sectors to drive investment, to level up communities throughout our United Kingdom.

    And to ensure that this growth translates into real improvements to people’s lives.

    Whether it’s more high-skilled, high-paid jobs on their doorsteps, whether it’s new training and educational opportunities in the technologies of tomorrow, whether it’s better diagnoses and treatment of life-threatening diseases.

    The UK is already the greatest tech and science success story of this decade. Together let’s make it a true tech and science superpower in the next decade and beyond.

    Thank you.

  • Anne-Marie Trevelyan – 2023 Speech at Bruegel Event

    Anne-Marie Trevelyan – 2023 Speech at Bruegel Event

    The speech made by Anne-Marie Trevelyan, the Minister of State in the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, in Brussels on 14 June 2023.

    The roll-out of clean energy technologies is the driver for new investment into critical minerals, which are of course at the heart of our global efforts to reach net zero.

    Building this supply chain is the only way to address the climate crisis and complete our sprint towards net zero at the pace out planet needs us to.

    The UK is committed to making global supply chains more resilient, secure, sustainable, and diverse, working closely with our partners around the world – including, of course, many of you here today.

    We are particularly keen to increase collaboration with the EU and Member States, and I am glad of this opportunity to set out our priorities, and how the UK can support our common goals.

    The publication of the detail for the proposed EU Critical Raw Materials Act is a welcome and important, step towards these shared goals. As the EU Member States and Parliament review the proposed legislation, the UK is keen to work with you.

    We are keen to discuss the impacts of provisions as the policy develops. And we look forward to hearing more from the Commission on the design and purpose of the proposed Critical Raw Materials Club. It will be important to build on existing international initiatives, bringing together producers and end users.

    We also hope the Club will foster co-operation to allow resource-rich developing countries to keep more of the benefits in their own countries, one of the great frustrations to date as a few countries have taken all the processing value.

    The UK has significant strengths when it comes to critical minerals – this includes our industrial capabilities, academic expertise, and the City of London as the centre of global mining finance.

    Allow me if I may to reflect on these in a little more detail.

    The UK is proud to be home to some major players, including British chemicals company Johnson Matthey – the largest secondary refiner of Platinum Group Metals in the world, and one of the only companies with the facilities to recover iridium and ruthenium.

    This is coupled with significant academic, research and development expertise across mining, geology and engineering, as well as monitoring and stress-testing supply chains. The British Geological Survey is a world leader in research that underpins policymaking, regulation and responsible investment.

    The UK is also a global centre for mining finance and metals trading – the London Metal Exchange is one of the biggest in the world, with a large and influential community of traders, investors and advisors.

    So, the UK is well-placed to convene dialogues between mining finance and metals trading communities – supporting the development of structured, effective markets that can deliver resilient and responsible supply chains right across Europe.

    We are also leading in promoting ESG performance in global mineral supply chains, driven by our mining investor community. UK companies are leading the way in remote monitoring of ESG performance, through sensors and satellites.

    The UK remains committed to working with the EU and its Member States, bringing our strengths to help in united efforts to achieve our shared goals, and I wish you fruitful discussions throughout the day.