Military Equipment: Sales
Debate between Earl Attlee and Baroness Goldie(5 years, 3 months ago)
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Baroness Goldie
As we now know, there is reassuring evidence that the items are not sensitive, but the noble Lord asks an important question. The MoD has the power to stop the sale of items, if that sale would be contrary to national security. I reassure your Lordships that the MoD has made it clear to the liquidator of the storage company that the sale of potentially sensitive items, if that is what they were, would have been a breach of national security. Where criminal activity is believed to have taken place, such as a breach of the Official Secrets Act, we would engage further with the MoD Police for them to access the site and reclaim any sensitive items with a view to potentially stopping any auction.
Earl Attlee (Con)
My Lords, does the Minister agree that if any person allowed a foreign power to use defence equipment in the way the noble Lord, Lord West, suggested, they would still fall foul of the Official Secrets Act?
Baroness Goldie
My noble friend makes an important point. The Official Secrets Act, as your Lordships will be aware, is a far-reaching piece of legislation designed to protect the national security of our country and its citizens. It is very easy to breach the provisions of that Act.
Russia: Vostok 2018 Military Exercises
Debate between Earl Attlee and Baroness Goldie(5 years, 8 months ago)
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Baroness Goldie
My Lords, as I made clear earlier this week, the Government take very seriously their obligations to keep this country secure and safe and have an effective and workable defence capability. That, of course, is what the first step of the strategic defence review was all about, and it is certainly what the Modernising Defence Programme is about. That programme, I remind noble Lords, is to make sure that defence is configured to address the intensifying and more complex threats that we and our allies face, and to put UK defence on an enduringly affordable footing so that our contribution to national security and prosperity is sustainable over the long term.
Earl Attlee (Con)
My Lords, when was the last time the British Army deployed a largely fully formed and supported division into the field for movement and manoeuvre training?
Baroness Goldie
My noble friend asks a specific question to which I do not have any answer, specific or otherwise, so I shall have to undertake to write to him.