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Defence in the UK

I was interested by the furore among Conservative Members at the changes that were made last year. I have followed that through, and whenever I have got talking to people in the defence industry, I have asked them how they feel about those changes, how they have bedded in and whether people are getting the service that they need to continue to do their job. Without exception, all the comments that I have received over the past few weeks, from the many people to whom I talked at the Labour party conference and the people whose factories I have subsequently visited, suggested that the support provided by the new organisation is perfectly acceptable, quite superb and has the potential, through connections with all the trade expertise in the Department responsible for trade, that DESO would not have had. The defence industry does not feel the disappointment that hon. Gentleman suggests, and I ask him to check the facts. I have been checking them because I need, and want, to know the situation, and I have been enormously pleased with the response that I had. I invite him to do the same and to bring his reports back to the House. He might think that people feel let down by the changes that we have made, but that is not what they are saying to me.