Defence Investment Plan

Debate between Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist and Lord Coaker

Wednesday 1st July 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Coaker (Lab)]

In terms of the spending, I have made the point about the 2027 spending review, and that the document lays out that we will come back to the 3% commitment at the 2027 spending review, and, of course, the 3.5% commitment is laid out in the document as well. That lays out what the Government’s plans are.

[Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist (Con)]

The noble Lord, Lord Liddle, has just alluded to the elephant in the room, which is that there are no cuts to the £333 billion welfare bill, which would go a long way to helping with additional support for the defence industry. My worry is that most of these cuts are unknown, and they are optimistic efficiencies, but I know that the £2 billion being cut from the BEIS budget is a worry. How is this going to affect Mr Miliband’s ambitions for net zero?

[Lord Coaker (Lab)]

I do not know about the ambitions for net zero. All I can say to the noble Baroness is that, of course, spending is important, and increasing the amount of spending on defence is important. Whatever decisions are made will require the reprioritisation of budgets for what the Government plan to do. That is the reality of finding more money for defence. We are ensuring that everything in the current plans, and the defence investment plan, is funded. The spending review will come back to how it is funded beyond 2029-30, and how that is done will be a matter for that review.

Nuclear Regulatory System

Debate between Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist and Lord Coaker

Wednesday 10th September 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Coaker (Lab)]

As I said to the noble Lord, Lord Howell, and in answering my noble friend, of course it requires the big nuclear power stations such as Sizewell C and Hinkley C, as my noble friend has said. They are clearly part of the answer to providing our energy needs through nuclear and these big power stations. Alongside that, of course, we need the small modular reactors. They can be put in place more quickly and can be a part of the contribution to ensuring that we can meet our energy needs. Rolls-Royce, Holtec, GE Hitachi and a number of others are all trying to take this forward and, as my noble friend says, they are part of the answer, as well as these big stations.

[Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist (Con)]

My Lords, I welcome this interim report. It highlights the need for international collaboration to standardise and harmonise industry and regulatory approaches, the costs and time delays of which can be terminal to many innovative nuclear technologies and projects. We speak a lot about SMRs, but we must not forget the perhaps more interesting AMR technologies coming soon. It is imperative that the UK leads this effort, given the vast power demands of tech companies which really want to work with the UK. Who from the Government will lead the charge alongside our excellent chief inspector so that vendors have the trust and confidence they need to create investable projects?

[Lord Coaker (Lab)]

Of course, the charge will be led by the Government. The Government believe in nuclear and in international collaboration. The Secretary of State, along with others, will provide a whole-of-government response. We welcome the support of industry, the Opposition and across the House and this Parliament for achieving that. Of course, it will be what we do nationally, but there will be international collaboration as well. I thank the noble Baroness for raising this because together we can sort out this energy problem, deliver much more quickly, and ensure that our planning process supports delivery to meet the needs that we have for energy, whereas sometimes it gets in the way.

Procurement Bill [HL]

Debate between Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist and Lord Coaker

Report stage
Monday 28th November 2022 Lords Chamber

[Lord Coaker (Lab)]

My Lords, I agree with much of what the noble Lord, Lord Fox, has just said. The Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee’s report was particularly damning and some of the language that it used about the Procurement Bill was, frankly, very surprising. It would be churlish now not to thank the Government for listening to what that committee said and for bringing forward the amendments that the Minister outlined for us. We welcome the change of heart on the part of the Government and hope that they will learn from what has taken place and make sure that we do not have a blanket change, which was what happened here. Normally, there would be two or three arguments about negative to affirmative; this is like a blanket change of heart on the part of the Government, but it is very much to be welcomed.

I wish to highlight government Amendment 165. The Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee was particularly exercised by the fact that the Government were seeking to change primary legislation in the Defence Reform Act through the negative resolution procedure. It was particularly concerned that the Government were seeking to do that, notwithstanding its other concerns. The Government have re-established an important principle that primary legislation should be treated with the respect that it deserves. I am pleased that the Government have put forward Amendment 165 to ensure that, at the very least, primary legislation in that respect is changed through the affirmative resolution procedure. We welcome the changes the Government have made and think they will be helpful as we make progress, not only in this Chamber but in the other place.

[Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist (Con)]

It remains for me to thank both noble Lords for their support for these government amendments and their helpful comments. I take on board the comments of the noble Lord, Lord Coaker, about the Defence Reform Act and the comments of the DPRRC in that regard. We will, obviously, be saying more on defence procurement on Wednesday.

[Lord Coaker (Lab)]

I am sorry to interrupt. I want to say that the noble Baroness, Lady Goldie, was particularly helpful when I met her and said that she would look to bring about this change. I apologise for not mentioning her.