Defence Spending: Scotland

Lord Beamish Excerpts

Tuesday 29th April 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Beamish (Lab)]

My Lords, the Royal Navy’s shipbuilding in Scotland is very much dependent on other UK yards for fabrication and block work, for example, so a vibrant shipbuilding industry throughout the UK is important. Does the Minister therefore agree that it is disappointing that the Scottish Government have just awarded the ferry contract to Turkey—work that could have been done in the UK to support UK shipbuilding nationally?

[Lord Coaker (Lab)]

My noble friend raises an important point. We would all agree that this Government need to ensure that, as far as possible, the increases in defence spending benefit UK industry, British industry, and that is what we are seeking to do. We are doing that with the steel industry, and we want to see shipbuilding benefiting from the increases in defence spending. That requires a whole UK Government effort, not only at government level but with all the devolved Governments across the UK working together to ensure that we benefit from this increase in spending.

As I say, the crucial point, which has been brought home to us all, is the ability of this country to rebuild manufacturing, whether it be shipbuilding, steel or other industries, to ensure that we have the sovereign capability we need should we face a crisis. Frankly, this has been a wake-up call that may have come too late for this conflict, but for future conflicts we will ensure that we have capability now rather than at some distant point in the future.