§ 20. Mr. Nicholas Soames (Mid-Sussex)What discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Defence on the attachment of Ministry of Defence staff to embassies. [40511]
§ The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Mr. Tony Lloyd)My right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary has not discussed that matter directly with my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Defence, but our two Departments remain in close contact on all aspects of such attachments.
§ Mr. SoamesIn the past few weeks, hon. Members will have seen the importance of steady, sensible military advice to the Foreign Office. Does the hon. Gentleman agree that it is important that more officials from the Foreign Office do attachments to departments in the Ministry of Defence, and that more service men and women in the MOD go to the Foreign Office? Does he agree that that is one of the most important ways in which to encourage the vital understanding that should exist between those two Departments and that, although there are some moves to that end, there should be many more?
§ Mr. LloydThere is no doubt about the valuable role that service attaches play throughout the world. The co-ordination between the two Departments responsible—the Foreign Office and the Ministry of Defence—is close because they both recognise that that is important. In the context of the hon. Gentleman's original, perhaps less charitable, point, I thought that he might have taken the opportunity to congratulate the defence adviser who was based in Accra, but attached non-residentially to Sierra Leone, who was decorated for his valiant service at the time of the evacuation of British people and others whom Britain helped. That would have been a fitting tribute to that important role and perhaps more fitting to the tone of the later question.