Defence Investment Plan

Lord Fox Excerpts

Tuesday 16th June 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Coaker (Lab)]

We are taking a lot of action on recruitment and retention. To give a couple of examples in the short time I have, the announcement last week about the further increase to Armed Forces personnel pay was important, showing that the Government support and respect the work they do. There is also the work we are doing on military housing; that is an important statement as well. We are taking a variety of measures in a variety of ways to ensure the value that we all place upon our Armed Forces personnel.

[Lord Fox (LD)]

One way of achieving the objectives that my noble friend spoke about, to give some certainty, could be for the UK to join the defence, security and resilience bank. In answer to a Question I asked on 19 May, the noble Lord, Lord Livermore, said that the Government had “no current plans” to join that bank. However, the Canadian High Commissioner said late last week that Gordon Brown had talked to Mark Carney about the UK joining the bank and that talks were ongoing between it, the Treasury and the Ministry of Defence. Can the Minister clear up for your Lordships’ House whether we are or are not seeking to join that bank?

[Lord Coaker (Lab)]

I cannot say that we are seeking to join that bank, but within the MoD and across government there are considerations of what other mechanisms we might use to fund defence.