National Resilience Committee — hearing of 7 September 2026: transcript & video

00:03 - 03:56

Speaker 1

Well, good afternoon. Thank you all very much for coming and spending the time to help us with this important inquiry. I should remind you that we're being broadcast live, it's a public session, and that in a couple of days you will each receive a transcript of the session. So that's your opportunity to spot any minor errors that you want to correct, or to spot any gaps where you wish you'd said something but you didn't and you want to give us supplementary comments in writing. Unusually, we've got five of you on the panel today, so please don't repeat what somebody else has said if you can avoid it.

Some questions I'm sure will be directed at either MOD or FCDO, others will welcome responses from both departments, but it's extremely helpful for us to have you both here. I think we've got you all for about an hour or so, is that right? Good. And we heard from Mr. Johnson a few sessions ago already, so don't feel that you have to go over any ground that you gave us before because we've got that on the record already. Thank you.

Obviously we've got a lot of questions to ask you, but if in your first answer, if each of you could just introduce yourself very briefly for the record, that would be helpful. And I'll start if I may, and turn to the Minister first. My question is about the national conversation, a phrase that's on everybody's lips at the moment, and the Strategic Defence Review recommended that we have this national conversation on defence and security. What I would like to hear is what will the government be doing to ensure that this does happen across the whole of society, and in particular, what will you do or what plans have you already got to make sure that you engage young people in the conversation? We've gone out of our way to try and consult young people as well as part of our evidence gathering, and I'm very aware that public attitude surveys on this whole topic have only thus far ever been with people aged 18 and above.

And I think that I saw a flavor of what the government might be up against in this national conversation in the last couple of days looking at a particular social media platform which had so far one and a half million responses to the government recommendation that's had a lot of publicity over the last few days about the need to stockpile water and food in the face of the next phase of El Niño. And it was quite striking to me that the overwhelming response from these million and a half young people on the social media platform was utter mockery, saying, "Oh, we don't believe a word of this, the government is hiding something, why doesn't it tell us the truth?" "It's not extreme weather, they're preparing for war, why don't they just come out with it?" That was a flavor of the response which has provoked my question about what will you do specifically for young people, but obviously please tell us the broad context as well about how this national conversation is going to be conducted and planned.

The rest of the transcript is for Pro customers

Unlock the full transcript, chat, and every analysis feature with Polyfact Pro.

The video itself stays free to watch, in full, no account needed.