Defence Procurement

Julian Brazier Excerpts

Tuesday 10th December 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hammond]

We have a defence industrial strategy. The question from the hon. Member for Glasgow North West (John Robertson) about the Clyde yards will remind the House that, just recently, we made a very important step forward in allowing BAE Systems to explain to the world how it is going to manage complex warship building in the future to ensure that we retain a credible and viable complex warship building operation in the UK.

[Mr Julian Brazier (Canterbury) (Con)]

My right hon. Friend has won some important concessions from the Treasury, and not just on terms and conditions of service for these key people, but in other areas, such as partly restoring the ability for annual financial carry-over, which was lost under the previous Government. Does he think he would have been able to win those concessions had he not been floating a more radical alternative?

[Mr Hammond]

My hon. Friend raises a fascinating proposition: was this all some complex ruse to try to squeeze greater concessions out of the Treasury? I can assure him that that was not the intention. We genuinely wanted, and want, to explore the possibilities of using the private sector in a strategic role and, through DE&S plus, in a more traditional supportive role to get the best value-for-money proposition for the taxpayer—nothing more and nothing less.