Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to his Department's statement entitled Naval Base Infrastructure, published on 14 July 2026, what the expected completion date is for each element of project Bentham.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
Project Royal Oak allocated £26 billion across our three naval bases and provided £3.9 billion for HMNB Portsmouth. Project Bentham is part of that funding and work on the delivery programme for Project Bentham is ongoing. Completion dates for the individual elements will be confirmed as the programme progresses and delivery schedules are finalised.
Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much will be spent on uncrewed and autonomous testing for the Royal Air Force in the (a) current and (b) remaining financial years of this Parliament.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The information is not held centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
There is a range of Test and Evaluation activity planned across the Protector RG1 programme, the Stormshroud programme, Collaborative Combat Aircraft, and other technology development programmes. However, costs specific to Test and Evaluation are not accounted for separately from wider programme and operating costs.
Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how much has been spent on Local Government Reorganisation a) nationally and b) in Suffolk.
Answered by Jim McMahon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
As set out by the Secretary of State in her oral statement of 7 September, the Government has withdrawn the March 2026 decisions for Essex, Hampshire, Norfolk and Suffolk, and paused decisions for the other 14 areas while a full review of the local government reorganisation programme is conducted. We recognise the need for clarity and will set out next steps as soon as possible. We also recognise that areas will have committed resources to reorganisation and ministers will consider this matter alongside the review.
Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much will be spent on uncrewed and autonomous testing for the British Army in the (a) current and (b) remaining financial years of this Parliament.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The information is not held centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
There is a range of test and evaluation activity planned across Project CORVUS, Project NYX, Uncrewed Ground Vehicle development activities and other Army uncrewed and autonomous capability programmes. However, costs specific to test and evaluation are not accounted for separately from wider programme and operating costs.
Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the total amount is that will be spent on developing Collaborative Combat Aircraft for the RAF in the (a) current and (b) remaining financial years of this parliament.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The UK's Defence Investment Plan (DIP) allocated £300 million specifically to launch a dedicated UK Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) programme. This targeted funding is aimed at kickstarting a domestic autonomous jet programme, with the government expecting a flying technology demonstrator by 2030.
Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the total amount is that will be spent on uncrewed and autonomous testing for the Royal Navy in the (a) current and (b) remaining financial years of this parliament.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The information required to answer the question is not held centrally and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost to the Department.
Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much he plans to spend on (a) uncrewed systems and (b) counter drone systems for the Army in each of the remaining financial years of this Parliament.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
Across the remainder of this Parliament the Ministry of Defence plans to spend £1.26 billion on Land domain uncrewed systems and £482 million on deployable counter drone systems for the Army. This latter figure does not include funding for counter drone systems being procured for UK Homeland Defence or deployable Ground Based Air Defence systems capable of targeting drones.
The breakdown of spend per Financial Year is not held centrally and therefore cannot be provided within this response.
Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether the £220million allocated to the Barrow Transformation Fund will be included in UK NATO qualifying defence spend.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
In line with NATO guidance, all relevant Government expenditure will be counted towards defence spending, including Departments outside of MOD, provided it specifically meets the needs of the UK Armed Forces.
Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much he intends to spend on developing a Hybrid Navy in each of the remaining financial years of this Parliament.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
Defence will invest at least £1.5 billion over the next four years to begin delivering the Hybrid Navy, including the integration of autonomous underwater, surface and airborne systems to deliver mass and persistence. By 2030, we aim to have brought the first large autonomous vessels of into service, including a prototype uncrewed missile platform and extra-large uncrewed underwater vessels (XLUUVs), with payloads developed through AUKUS. The optimal breakdown of this £1.5 billion investment between different types of vessel will now be developed in consultation with industry.
Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of applying a zero rate of VAT to repairs and maintenance works carried out on places of worship.
Answered by James Murray - Financial Secretary to the Treasury and Paymaster General
VAT is a broad-based tax on consumption and the standard rate of 20 per cent applies to most goods and services, including most construction works. Exceptions to the standard rate have always been limited and balanced against affordability concerns.
To support the repair and maintenance of places of worship, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport administer the Places of Worship Renewal Fund which will allocate £92m over four years. The Fund provides upfront capital grants to enable essential capital works for buildings in greatest need.