Oral Answers to Questions

Edward Morello Excerpts

Monday 1st June 2026 Commons Chamber

[Luke Pollard]

My hon. Friend is a real champion for Harlow. As we are increasing defence spending, we are directing more of the increased defence budget at British companies, including British small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as larger companies. I would be happy to meet him to discuss how we can support the SMEs in his constituency, so that they receive a greater share of this Government’s increased defence budget.

[Edward Morello (West Dorset) (LD)]

7. What steps his Department is taking to expedite defence procurement.

[The Minister for Defence Readiness and Industry (Luke Pollard)]

We inherited a broken procurement system of red tape, delays and high costs. Some 47 of 49 major defence programmes were delayed or not on budget when we came to office. We are speeding up procurement, buying British and aiming to increase direct SME spend by 50%, which represents an extra £2.5 billion that we will spend with UK SMEs.

[Edward Morello]

In the south-west, the defence sector and associated supply chains provide more than 40,000 jobs and contribute more than £3 billion to the economy. In West Dorset, firms provide skilled employment and apprenticeships, but they are frustrated by repeated delays to the defence investment plan and a slow and uncertain procurement process. Companies in my constituency tell me that, at this rate, they will be headquartered in Europe or the US by this time next year. We risk losing jobs, sovereign capability and billions of pounds of investment. I welcome the Secretary of State announcing that the DIP will be released before the NATO summit, although I am sure the House will note that with a degree of scepticism, but how will the release of the DIP and the procurement process benefit businesses in the south-west, especially small and medium-sized enterprises?

[Luke Pollard]

As a fellow south-west MP, I know how important defence is for businesses large and small in our part of the world. That is why we have signed 1,200 major defence deals since the general election, and analysis of just 500 of them shows that they are delivering benefit for 8,000 SMEs and micro-SMEs. We will continue to increase the amount of direct spend with small businesses, just as we are speeding up procurement. We inherited a system that was broken and did not work, and we are speeding it up to ensure that we can get more contracts to those brilliant innovators in our economy as soon as we can.