 Hello, and welcome to the Defence session of the Conservative party conference. I'm delighted today to be joined by my excellent ministerial team who have been working together throughout all this Covid crisis. I'd like to introduce them to you if you are unaware but they have been working incredibly hard in making sure that our country is safe but at the same time we're supporting the rest of the government. At the far end is James Heppie, the Minister of the Armed Forces who deals with operations and has very much at the coll face of what our forces do day to day. Baroness Goldie, who deals with inclusion, deals with ceremonial and also deals with the very important position of the union and how defence is an important gel to the United Kingdom. Closest to me is Jeremy Quinn, who is our Defence Procurement Minister. He's the man who has to keep a good eye on the £18 billion a year we spend on equipment, making sure that we try and stay on our budgets and indeed wrth tapod o y maesun yn hyn oed. A'r ddefnyddio junctionu, Johnny Mercer, y Minister for Defence, darparu i gael arweinyddio, sy'n gweithio'r bobl ymbyrchu o bethau sy'n gweithio i gael'r gweithio'n myfyrnau oedd allan â gweithio gennymau mae'r gweithio i lle i weithio eu cael ei gael o unrhyw yn y gweithio, i ddechrau, wrth hynna i ddechrau. Fy nid i fyny'r peth yw i'r prydau. Fy angen maen nhw'n gweithio'n gweithio i mynd i gael a what the future holds for us. Defence has been incredibly busy over this period, not only supporting our men and women of the armed forces, but also supporting the whole of government in tackling this COVID crisis. I've been incredibly proud as the leader of this department to see what defence can do at a time of national crisis in a national emergency. Many of you will have seen right through the country, from the local authorities all the way up to great departments of state hefyd, hon, fel Y Dda興 Oedd o'r Hwm, cofnodd o'r clwrn y cyfnodd, cofnodd y cyffredin ac cofnodd ac cofnoddol o'r cyffredin i'r gwestiwn yn rhanig ohonyni. Roedd ymdoedd ar ei pwysig yma, dwi'n fawr am fyddio i'n mynd i'n gweithio losio. Felly byddwn wedi cael ei bywysig. Mae yn yn unig ar gyhoeddau ymgylcheddau ac mae ydych chi'n urchynio d сделали.��yn gwybod i'w eu cyffredin iawn i James Hepi, fel y llaw rymlydd, ac mae'n dweud ond ond wedi'u amdano gael gwybod cyfyrdd gan hynny'n gweld. Ben, rydyn ni'n ddweud gan amgylquoteirol, a gallu yn gweithio ar gweithio i'r llunָn. Mae'n gweithio ar gyferwyr ariynau gyfu ar y byfrulu i'r osud ym Ymglwadau Nid yn byw. Y cwyddoch chi'n gweld i'r defnyddiriaid, a wnaed i ni'n gweithio i'r PPE ar y ffrwng yng Nghyrgrifennid Gwlaff. i gael eich FIFI yn ei chael i'r ffawr o'r FIFI, ac mae'n ddau'r cyfnodol yn gweithio'r llyfridd yn ei ddweud, a'r cyfnodol yn ddweud i'r cyffredinol, ac mae'n ddweud i'r cyffredinol i'r gweithio'r fifio ar y cyfnodol, ac mae'n ddweud i'r cyffredinol i'r gweithio'r newydd o'r meccanidiadau newyddol i'r FIFI, wyすご iawn i gyfyrdd Covid arniol, ac yn erbyn rhywbeth hynny o'r gael y rydyn ni o'r yr hyn sy'n meddwl fo, yn gliw iawn i gael y ganddyn nhw, ac mae'r gweithio ar gyfer fawr y cyferyd yw hoffi'n gyd, ac yn ymweld yr Minister Gwein dechrau Gweithio, rydyn ni wedi cael ei ei fant masks cyfrefio a'r cyferydd â'r cyfyrdd cymryd rydyn ni oedd yn enw i'r cyfyrdd cymryd ysbydd hwnnw i'r cyfyrdd gyffyrdd cymryd Fi rforwyr ei fod yn gweithio'r ffordd ac yn gweithio'r gweithio'r gweithio'r Gwyrwyr. Gallen y cilydd yma gilydd yma ar Wathno, mae'r gweithio'r Gwyrwyr yn y meddwl penedig ac ysgol negyrifiad yma. Felly, o'r ganogodd yn oed o'r gwylwch yn chi'n cyfrifasio ar guitariaeth bapwr, mae'n oed yn gweithio'r gweithio, yn gweithio'r Gwyrwyr o Caerdydd yma. Ond yna, dyna'r cyfnod. Yn ystod y ffnwyr, mae'n bwysig i gael i'r llwys yn y ffordd i ysgrifennu. Mae'r bwysig haf yn ymlaen i'r Ffragan, i'r Afganistau, i'r Marli. Fe ddim yn ei eisrwchным a'i?, all moddi ddaf na eituitid. Felly pe eitwch wedi roi amio reibu jei ystod o fod o ran i fi oesol ystod oesol mewn geiriedegial o'r ceisio i'r gymherion. Mae'n waith yn amlwg создgor ymddang基 deliberately ac yn programme ei 아이. Toi gael tuning arDRAM y cyfaladau â'r Spinach. Pe oedd ni'n gwell i'r g fynd fronts chaosy果ldent eraserir yma i gandol y gall fod box! surveillance o� a'r straightddau a'r gwed This Meir i'n gwneud cydnogi Llywodrafferiaon! Ac mae'n dda i chi'n golygu o'r yn meddwl fod yn ysgrifennu, mae'n oesgrifennu, mae'n oeddo'i'n meddwl. Mae'n oeddo i'r cymplectiad. Mae'n oeddo i'r cymplectiad o'r baithau, rwy'r baithau, ymrwyngau, ymrwyngau, ac yw'r cyfrifau i ddifu'r cydweithiau i'r ysgrifennu i'r plan yw'r cyfrifau'r mewn i'r blaenau. Ond ydych chi'n syniad am ychydig yng Nghymru yw'r cael ei fod yn y pethau cyflawn. Rydych chi'n wneud bod y ddweud erioed yn dweud yw'r unig gweithio, mae'r skilfennydd yw'r cynnigau a'r ddweud yw'n ddweud i'r rhan o gyfnod, ym y cyffredineth a'r dda hwnnw, a'r pryd yn gyfnod o'r llyfr, a'r pryd yn gweithio'r cael ei ddweud, a'n dweud yna'r gweithio'r cyffredineth a'r llyfr yn gyfrifon ac yn ymddi'r gweithio'r gweithio'n ddweud. Ydych chi'n gweld arnynwadio ar gyflym Ysgolffaidd a'r Eyrdd, ac rwy'n cael ei ddigon. Ersulwydwn ni'n rhesaith i gael eich dwyaf yn cael ymuwodau am maen nhw. Mae'n garfun cyngor i gael gwellu'r ddysgu. Rwy'n cael ei ddigon ni'n dechrau'u gael bod yn y rhan i'r cyfrifwyr cyrbyn. Sanyddo chi'n credu hir yma? Dwi'n safi yw bod i'n gwneudtersgol a chweithio â'r gynhyrch. Felly, mae'n gweithio'n gweithio ar y pryd yn y griffau yma. Mae'n ei wneud fel hynny o'r llwyffyr ar y cyflodd yn gyfnod ar y gwahodd gwaith yma. Ond y gallwn y gwahanol wedi'u'n bwysig, ac mae'n gwahanol yw. A'r tîm yma yma yw'r tîm ymlaen, a'r tîm yw'r tîm yw'r tîm yw'r tîm yw'r tîm, Winter, autumn, the world, more unstable, post-Covid, what do you think, what are you preparing for and what are the next steps? Well just right now we know that there is rain and snow and ice coming over a normal winter, we know that there is the pandemic on the rise again, all of which we have to be ready for. We're clearly ready for any eventuality when it comes to Brexit and we are looking where around the world is becoming interesting and almost every day in the news there are new countries that are appearing on our radar that start to think well hang about we might need to be ready to respond there and next year the really big look forward to is the first sailing of our carrier strike group and that is a really exciting thing and what better way to respond to an uncertain world post-Covid than such a demonstration of British hard power sailing around the globe sticking up for our interests and helping to reassure our friends. I think that's great and I think we are definitely the resilience department. We're the department that brings resilience to our rest of government and our society and I think you and leading them in the operations has really helped deliver and I think we owe a huge debt to them all. Thank you James, the MOD is truly the department for resilience providing resilience for both local government and national government and also throughout society and talking about resilience and resilience in our own forces what about resilience in business and industry that is so important to underpinning defence efforts around the world and at home. Jeremy? I think resilience is the word. James spoke to the extraordinary men and women of our armed forces but backing them up have been extraordinary scenes also in our industrial suppliers there are thousands of British companies that we rely upon to supply our armed forces and they've really stepped up to the mark this year. There's been a real Team UK approach around defence and we've been deeply impressed by how they have assisted and supported their friends and their comrades on the front line. It's a heavy responsibility but they've kept our planes in the air, they've kept our soldiers supplied they've kept the submarines on which we rely to maintain the continuous at sea nuclear deterrent that's helped to keep the peace for 60 years. They've kept those submarines being produced in a way that is safe which is delivered on their targets and they continue to support the key critical tasks of defence. As I said that's a heavy responsibility on them but it's also a heavy responsibility on all of us to say there's a team there are 119,000 people who work directly in defence and tens of thousands more in the broader supply chain I'm pleased to say that we have nearly 20% of all our UK spend now going to SMEs so we have people right the way across our country producing essential tasks, essential equipment to keep our armed forces at the peak of professionals and able to undertake their tasks which they do so brilliantly as James was describing. When I say across the whole of the UK it is the whole of the UK and our contracts reach out to every part of our union we have brilliant ship being produced on the client it's going to be the first time in a generation that we are going to be producing two classes of frigates in this country we have armour vehicles being produced in Wales, satellites in Northern Ireland aircraft in England right the way across the UK there is delivery happening day in, day out for our defence forces we've been truly proud of what they've done and I'm very proud to be able to support them in my visits abroad as I know you do the same Ben we have some great kit being made in this country we've got some great allies and we wish to support them I've also seen how proud they are of what they deliver to our armed forces again James referred to our wonderful aircraft carriers earlier this year before Covid I was able to visit Queen Elizabeth with many of the those who were from industry who made that happen and hundreds of apprentices they were all enormously proud of what they delivered quite rightly so was that industry delivering on jobs delivering on the critical innovation that we need to keep our country going forward to provide the research and development that gives us the cutting edge that delivers for our union and above all provides that platform for our extraordinary men and women to act with global Britain on that global stage and how have you found business have they been receptive to our demands have they been supportive how have they worked with us to make sure it carries on throughout I'm delighted to say we've had that level support not only from business but right down to the factory floor people have been determined and committed to support their essential defence outputs there's been a huge battle going on in the home front but not only to support that but to keep us safe and to support our interests around the world there is a task to be done and all aspects of business have really risen to that challenge we've been really pleased by that Team UK approach and have you been engaged in planning the next round of equipment the new generation of equipment for our armed forces absolutely, and their innovation is key so James referred to DSTL the brilliant people we have all across defence in the civil service of DSTL working with us in industry and in the armed forces themselves coming up with the new ideas with the innovation, with the technology that we need to remain at that cutting edge that delivers for our defence people it delivers for our tasking around the world but it also delivers for the country so broadly we need to ensure that we are at that cutting edge there's a throughput right the way across industry and that's what we're delivering of all these last few months where we've all worked differently and it's all been sometimes deserted in departments and on the outside what is the one thing that's stuck in your mind about what you've seen and witnessed through the MOD and working to get through this crisis it's been teamwork and it can do attitude seeing how our colleagues in uniform and across the civil service have risen to that challenge and delivered has been truly impressive and I've been delighted to see that carry over into our industrial partners as well people have known that we have a challenge as a country they've known what that has meant they've risen to that challenge and they have delivered that's great and if James is the operation is going you keep the wheels turning of the equipment and the kit that we need to do the job and it's been great Jeremy you helping get the British industry delivering and I'm pleased but all of that would not be possible if it wasn't for people and the Minister for Defence personnel and veterans, Johnny Mercer obviously has been there at the front keeping people going, motivating them dealing with the fallout in veterans where they are living out in the community and having to live with COVID and I think that's why Johnny I'd like to be interested in your views of what you've seen with people and how you think both the serving men and women of the armed forces and indeed the veterans of COPE Yeah well I think I think it's been an extraordinary year really I mean there's two distinct parts to what I do in this department and in the Cabinet Office and in this department I very much focus on service people and they very much been at the forefront of what we've heard already of pretty much every aspect to the COVID response so you've had people as we've heard working on the front line delivering PPE, running testing stations but then that all the way through that sort of thread there's been veterans in the care pathway if you like right through to veterans who volunteered in their hundreds to come forward and work for great companies like Rubicon and charities like that who've really sort of stepped up a time of national endeavour to meet the challenge but look in terms of policy we haven't really sat still during this period I was worried that COVID was going to sort of dominate the bandwidth but the reality is you've seen a very significant but irreversible strategic shift under this Prime Minister and under you Ben towards looking after our people you've seen that through a series of policies so you could class as sort of tactical success things like the childcare policy which is being rolled out across Cattrick across Plymouth and in High Wickham at the moment right through to things like veterans rail cards through to the money that's gone into housing there's been a very deliberate shift under this administration towards looking after our people so we're finally getting to the stage which is what I became a member of Parliament in the first place which was to try and close the gap between what we say and how it actually feels to be a serviceman in an old woman in this country we've got some brilliant servicemen and women for a long time I think we all feel that they probably deserved a little bit better than they've got but I do feel over the last 12 months in particular we've had a real shift towards what we're doing for them in the veterans space again a lot is changing this is we established the affairs the first time the UK government has actually altered the structure of government if you like to make sure that somebody is taking responsibility for not delivering but taking responsibility for this nation's debt to those who served and again we've had some really quick and good tactical successes and the challenge now is to turn that into a really strategic success around what does it feel like to be a veteran in the UK in 2020 I'm clear that we can introduce things like a guaranteed interview programme in the civil service we can introduce national insurance holidays for employers we can do the rail card as discussed but actually we really need to answer that question what does it feel like to be a veteran and that goes across a whole gamut of employment looking after people medically making sure they understand a very clear pathway for things like mental health which we know is a growing challenge in our community it's been a really good year but I'm clear we need to build on this year and I think the most seminal work was around the overseas operations service personnel and veterans bill which is really people wonder sometimes when they go and vote what they're actually going to get for their vote you wouldn't have found a prime minister with the courage in the last 40 years to actually try and correct this generational injustice of veterans who serve this country being subject to repeated vexatious allegations and investigations often being dragged through inquests and so on into old age actually this prime minister came in and said he was going to do something about it but unlike all the rest of them he actually did something and it's something he can be really proud of as a conservative party but actually we promised something difficult and we've actually had the minerals to step up and deliver it and makes me very proud to be part of your team Ben and proud to be part of the conservative party That's great Johnny and I know how passionate you are about the men and women of our armed forces and I think there's something quite unique about our ministerial team there are four regular soldiers serving as ministers if you include Leo Docherty who is our whip he too is a regular soldier and I think what it does give is a unique perspective of what it's like I'm older than you Johnny and therefore my time was Northern Ireland and everything else and you can talk with strength alongside James about Afghanistan and Iraq and what that has meant and I think it's been a joy that as a team we work on that together and I know that the men and women are at the heart of all we do we don't get the operations to run without the people we don't get the equipment and the energy and the logistics that we need delivered without the men and women and we don't get them into the armed forces and staying in if we don't look after the terms and conditions so what I'd be interested Johnny is through this campaign through this whole Covid campaign where we've been dealing with it what sticks out in your mind about the men and women that you've worked with on the front line and the veterans community as well so what really struck me was was the willingness really of veterans to get stuck in particularly in the early days when there was a I think a fair degree of nervousness around what Covid was and the implications of it and so on certainly the sort of volunteering in numbers may be very proud but what particularly stuck in my mind was something I got as a constituency MP actually I had a letter from a lady an elderly lady in Plymouth who had to go for a Covid test she was obviously, this was in the early days of Covid she was very nervous about it had no idea what was happening very nervous of Covid and all that but she turned up to a testing station in Plymouth she was greeted by some moral marines in uniform who were friendly, polite immediately set her at ease and it's just that kind of reassurance and some professionalism you can absolutely guarantee and rely on that's been lent on so heavily again by this country over the last 12 months and that we're so proud to represent Excellent Johnno I think we've come a long way through this process the men and women of the armed forces have kept it going but of course how the whole United Kingdom sticks together on this how the men and women work together is obviously very important and I think Annabelle Goldie who is our minister in the Lords and my former boss from a long time ago in the Scottish Parliament was very key to delivering many of those messaging and indeed policies that keep us together and I wanted to ask Annabelle that we often see in our media we often see very much an English-focused media if you're in England and a Scottish-focused media if you're in Scotland but as the minister that really has to help us through in the union and make sure that our voice is heard in defence in the union, what's your experience been about how the military has landed Covid in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as well as in England because I think people should understand that we're in the fingertips of this country or these islands and that's really really important to us You use a good phrase then fingertips, I think that's exactly what we are as a department across the UK and I'm very clear that as Jeremy was explaining we're here to protect the citizens of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland we're here to protect the national interests and security of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland and I think what Covid demonstrated very well was that within the United Kingdom our defence personnel our servicemen and women they will go anywhere, whatever is necessary whether it's to help with building the Florence Nightingale hospitals the Leeds Jordan hospital in Scotland whether it was to help with the pop-up testing stations, whether it was to help with delivering PPE this was going on across the United Kingdom and I think it was a very impressive demonstration of the holistic approach of defence of our relevance across the UK and of how the individual members states of the UK all benefit from our presence but I think the other aspect of this United Kingdom support is that and I didn't realise this then until I became a Minister in Defence I've seen it first hand how for example we recruit our servicemen and women from all across the UK we have a family of service personnel from all our different member nations within the UK but also in having that recruitment across the UK they then serve throughout the UK and that's another illustration of the reach of our UK defence capability but a very important part of this and again Jeremy was talking about this I have seen the tremendous impact that our industrial partners who exist to provide us with the equipment with the ships with the artillery with the equipment that we need I have seen how that absolutely generates not just economic activity throughout the UK which is vitally important but you know it's a unique way of providing social cohesion I've seen it first hand for example in an industrial partner in Scotland and a mother and a son are working in that company doing specialised work they know very well that what they are doing is serving the ends of United Kingdom defence they know very well that in doing that they are helping to keep the UK safe they are helping with our global influence abroad and I think that's a tremendously important part of the defence family influence throughout the UK and I think to be honest today it seems to me that uniquely amongst government departments I mean we are the cement in the union bricks wherever you go throughout the UK you will find evidence of our defence presence and our defence support and it's a very positive development I mean I think our collective endeavour is the union and the United Kingdom and our history is littered with that collective endeavour to fight fascism in the Second World War standing together to fight Napoleon and the threats to Europe all those centuries ago and standing together today to make sure that we protect all our shores the British Isles are protected by the United Kingdom navy to protect from Russia who can very often threaten our airspace and others and I think what are we going to do to make sure that not only do we reflect the perfect parts of the United Kingdom but we reflect all the different types of people in the United Kingdom whether you're gay or straight or whether you're a man or a woman whether you're from a BME background or not how are we going to do more recruitment of these people to make sure we're a more balanced force so we reflect society in the same way other parts of business and government does It's a vitally important question then and it's an area within my portfolio that I'm both proud and absolutely delighted to be given a responsibility for You're absolutely correct We have heard about the talent we have in defence within our armed forces across our civilian population and I'm very clear that underpinning that is diversity because if we want the best talent we're only going to get it if we're diverse and if we want to attract that talent we're only going to get it if we're inclusive otherwise people won't want to come and the good talent we've got if we're not inclusive won't want to stay so to me diversity and inclusion are absolutely pivotal to the continued successful operation of our manpower and women power capability within defence and I've seen at first hand to be honest a wind of change blowing I don't think we've always got this right then be utterly frank about that but I have seen within the last eight to nine months an absolute sea change in how we're approaching diversity and inclusion within the department the leaders coming from the top from our permanent secretary from our chief of defence staff they are setting that lead they are ensuring that people feel supported, that people feel welcome that judgments are not made about people because of background whatever that may be they're ensuring that within the department we are educating to change culture to change attitudes we're ensuring that we're giving line managers confidence to identify something that may be wrong and unacceptable and to call it out and to deal with it and I know the chief of defence staff has been very clear that within the armed forces there is an absolute command going right down the chain of command to say we have to recognise and respect the different backgrounds of all our people we all join up in the common cause of serving the country of protecting our people, protecting our security and we must reciprocate that with respect with support so for example we are simplifying the complaints procedure if people have reason to be concerned to make a complaint there's been frustration at the delay and the complexity of the process we're trying to cut through that to make it a lot more straightforward we've introduced with very recent effect from the start of September an anti-bullying helpline 24-7 fantastic innovation absolutely delighted about that we have to make sure that all our people whether in the armed forces, whether within our civilian population that they feel that somewhere they can go that someone they can talk to they're not alone and that if they have a problem we want to know about it and we want to help them solve it and we want to assist them in determining that that solution gives them a positive future and more confidence in their presence within our defence family but I think the other really important thing is that we also want to make sure that we provide that positive career progression and I know within the armed forces the chief of defence staff is very clear about sending that message about looking at recruitment about broadening the base of how we interview what is it we need to do to make people from different backgrounds feel welcome, feel included feel they have a place with us and the other thing that's I think very important within the civilian population is we're certainly investing in training for line managers to ensure that they are aware of what can arise and they have to deal with it they can't sit back and think that's someone else's problem they have to deal with it and what I've seen is a renewed sense of confidence I think across defence about a willingness because of this leadership from the top to feel positive to feel included and to feel confident about now expressing concerns knowing that they will dealt with in a sensible and sensitive fashion so I think there's a terrific message coming out of MOD Ben on diversity and inclusion and we shall be the stronger for that my ambition is that this department is one of the best departments to work in in government and that we have a workforce of all the talents, just like the United Kingdom we are better when we work together as a team and differences don't matter what matters is our skills and our outputs and that is where we are best it's the greatest privilege when you serve the armed forces to realise that your job as a young officer is to gel together people of different backgrounds to get the best out of them and I think what that means for me is leading this department is a privilege because not only do I get to work with a really great team of ministers and we work as a team but I also get to work with some amazing people across defence whether they are the most junior private in the army or a pilot in the RAF whether they are the chief of defence staff General Sannick Carter or the reserve person who works in NHS hospital for most of the time comes to help us in Mali or elsewhere around the world that is truly inspiring and I know that many of my colleagues look at the MOD as a job they'd like to do one day and I think we all realise how lucky we are I'm lucky to have a team like the ministers you've met today and please remember that the Conservative Party is the party that supports defence as Johnny Mercer said the Prime Minister has supported his pledges he's delivered on them protecting our veterans we've established a veterans agency we are delivering on the manifestor commitments around child care and investing in our armed forces and as we go forward in an even more uncertain and anxious world I'm confident that many of you will be able to sleep safely in your beds because of the work that the Ministry of Defence and the armed forces do day in, day out to remember that the first duty of government is security