Vulcan Handover Date
(4 weeks ago)
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The Minister for Defence Procurement and Industry (Maria Eagle)
The Vulcan Naval Reactor Test Establishment in Caithness, Scotland, has been used for prototype testing of nuclear propulsion plants for more than 50 years. The last test reactor was shut down in 2015 and more recent activity at the site is focused on fuel management to support the ongoing safe operation of our current nuclear submarines.
The site continues to provide valuable support to the submarine enterprise, ensuring our submarines remain safe to operate in meeting our national security requirements, including the continuous at-sea deterrent, and we expect this to continue until at least April 2027. This maintains around 280 highly skilled jobs for the contractor Rolls-Royce Submarines and the Ministry of Defence.
Once complete, the plan is to hand over the management of the Vulcan site from the MOD to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority for decommissioning to commence. Synergies are being sought between the NRTE site and the neighbouring Dounreay civil nuclear site, which is also being decommissioned, to ensure we deliver value for taxpayers’ money.
In the longer term, the MOD remains committed to decommissioning of the Vulcan site and to remove fuel from the site as soon as is reasonably practicable.
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Telecoms Supply Chain Diversification Advisory Council Report: Government Response
(4 weeks ago)
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The Minister for Data Protection and Telecoms (Chris Bryant)
The security and resilience of the UK’s digital infrastructure is of central importance to the Government’s strategic objectives. This statement provides an update on the Government’s response to the Telecoms Supply Chain Diversification Advisory Council’s report and recommendations. It outlines the Government’s approach to addressing the risks to supply chains that support advanced connectivity technologies.
I am grateful to the Telecoms Supply Chain Diversification Advisory Council for its report and recommendations, setting out the risks we still carry and what the Government, working with industry, should do to address them.
Ensuring that individuals and businesses have access to high-quality connectivity serves as the foundation of our modern, digital economy. Given our current and future reliance on this connectivity, it is essential that these technologies are secure and resilient. This includes ensuring that we have a healthy, competitive telecoms supply chain, both to drive innovation and to avoid the risks that may arise from acute market concentration. In the broader digital sector, last year’s Crowdstrike incident, which led to IT outages worldwide, showed just how disruptive it can be when something goes wrong with a supplier to which we have high exposure.
I accept the Council’s recommendations. The previous Government took steps to begin addressing these risks, but Government and industry still have more to do. In the Government’s response, we reaffirm our commitment to secure and resilient digital infrastructure. We outline the steps we will take to manage risks in the short term, transition to a healthier supply chain in the medium term, and prevent similar risks from emerging in the long term.
By addressing these issues, we can drive growth and build sovereign capability by increasing the share of technologies developed within the UK. With a strong research base and a range of suppliers of advanced connectivity solutions based here, we aim to expand the UK’s role in the global supply chain and influence the next generation of technologies to meet our connectivity needs.
To seize this opportunity, the Government have committed to advanced connectivity technologies as a key growth market in the forthcoming industrial strategy, utilising our available levers to maximise our potential. We will work in partnership with the mobile network operators to deliver the measures set out in this response. To ensure all our efforts are well-targeted and informed by those both developing and deploying these technologies, we will also establish a new Advanced Connectivity Technologies Council.
The security and resilience risks to our digital infrastructure are significant, but the economic potential that will be unlocked by cutting-edge connectivity is vast. Guided by the Telecoms Supply Chain Diversification Advisory Council’s recommendations, the Government will work to advance secure, resilient and innovative digital infrastructure and the technologies that enable this, now and in the future.
The Government response will be deposited in the Libraries of both Houses.
I look forward to continuing work to strengthen, secure and expand our digital infrastructure, working with stakeholders across the economy and international partners.
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