Oral Answers to Questions

Glyn Davies Excerpts

Monday 14th January 2013 Commons Chamber

[Dr Murrison]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. We need to make sure we make the best we can out of assets that are under increasing pressure. I note that President Obama’s guidance issued on 5 January last year, “Sustaining US Global Leadership”, set the scene for how US defence is likely to go. I am particularly pleased to see a high degree of correlation between that and our own strategic defence and security review outcomes. We are close to the Americans, and we look forward to the relationship continuing and developing in the future, as they are, as it were, our best friends.

[Glyn Davies (Montgomeryshire) (Con)]

14. What estimate he has made of the number of people employed in Scotland as part of the defence industrial base.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence (Mr Philip Dunne)]

There are over 15,000 military and civilian personnel employed in Scotland, including at the largest single site employer in Scotland, Her Majesty’s Naval Base Clyde. There are hundreds of contracts with defence companies operating in Scotland, but the Ministry of Defence no longer compiles employment statistics by region within the supply chain, as such information does not directly support either policy making or operations.

[Glyn Davies]

Does the Minister share my opinion that, from the perspective of the strength of our defence industrial base, from the perspective of job creation and retention and from the perspective of the effective defence of our nation, it is crucial that Scotland remains an integral part of the United Kingdom?

[Mr Dunne]

I entirely endorse my hon. Friend and neighbour’s view that maintaining Scotland within the United Kingdom will be the best way to maintain defence jobs in Scotland, to maintain a powerful industrial base in engineering and high-technology jobs and to provide Scotland with the best defence capability. The Scottish Government have yet to provide any answers on how they will provide such capability for defence and security in the unlikely event of an independent Scotland.