Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to support innovative defence technology.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 22 September 2023 to Question 199358.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent progress he has made on the Global Combat Air Programme.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
On 14 December 2023, the Secretary of State met with his Japanese and Italian counterparts in Tokyo to sign the GCAP Treaty, signifying a landmark milestone in the Global Combat Air Programme.
This Treaty will establish the GCAP International Government Organisation (GIGO), which will work to support timely programme delivery and an in-service date of 2035. The GIGO, to be located in the UK, will be responsible for delivering vital military capability, strengthening each country’s combat air industrial capability, and achieving value for money.
A transcript for the statement made on 18 December 2023 by the Defence Secretary on the Global Combat Air Programme Treaty can be found here - https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2023-12-18/debates/774DA45D-51D9-42C7-A050-5C5C9F5CADCD/GlobalCombatAirProgrammeTreaty
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to support defence jobs.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The most recent estimate shows that MOD investment supports 209,000 jobs in industries across the UK.
We continue to support UK businesses through research and development, exports and supply chains.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment his Department has made of the implications for his policies of the security situation in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Answered by James Heappey
To tackle the diverse threats in Sub-Saharan Africa, we have developed integrated security offers to protect our interests, tackling the upstream drivers of terrorism, and working with our partners to enhance and modernise their security capacity and capabilities to ensure lasting stability in the region. Furthermore, we are increasing our efforts to support African-led multilateral initiatives, such as the Accra Initiative, to encourage African leadership in responding to security challenges. We closely align our plans with the Allies to ensure that we are burden sharing across Africa. We regularly assess our programmes of activity for impact and value for money.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to strengthen defence relationships with Japan.
Answered by James Heappey
The UK-Japan relationship is the closest it has been for decades. The Integrated review was warmly welcomed in Japan; our Indo-Pacific tilt provided reassurance that we would continue to play an active role on the international stage post-Brexit. Carrier Strike Group21 and the deployment of HMS TAMAR and SPEY have reinforced this view.
The major recent announcements on the Global Combat air Programme (GCAP) and Reciprocal Access Agreement (RAA) at the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023 reinforce the UK's position as Japan's closest European security partner. GCAP will see us harnessing the technological and industrial strengths of all three countries for this once in a generation opportunity, which will sustain and future proof our cutting-edge Combat Air Sectors.
Once ratified by both countries in the coming months, the RAA will set out terms and conditions for UK and Japanese personnel undertaking activity in one another's countries. We will use the RAA to plan and deliver longer term, larger scale and more complex joint defence activity with Japan.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to develop innovative defence technology.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
The Ministry of Defence works closely with UK industry and academia, including Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SME), to identify and invest in innovative technologies that address our most pressing capability challenges as well as publishing our future priorities to incentivise investment.
The Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) finds and funds exploitable ideas to support UK Defence and Security quickly and effectively. In the last financial year, DASA allocated over £30 million across more than 150 projects, of which 64% were with SMEs.
Through the Defence Innovation Fund we have invested over £200 million of our commitment to spend around £800 million over a ten-year period.
Over the four years of this Spending Review, Defence will invest over £6.6 billion in Research and Development, supporting the development of battle-winning defence technology as a response to the accelerating pace of technological change.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to support British shipbuilding.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to him on 14 December 2022 to Question 104345.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to develop innovative defence technology.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 12 December 2022 to Question 902724.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to support British shipbuilding.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given on 9 June 2022 to Question 10012 to the hon. Member for Wolverhampton South West (Stuart Anderson).
Since then, we have launched the third round of the Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition, committing £60 million. This is the largest ever government R&D investment into the UK commercial maritime sector. This is part of Department for Transport's £206 million investment in a UK Shipping Office for Reducing Emissions, which will match-fund private investment in the commercialisation of clean maritime technologies.
The National Shipbuilding Office (NSO) which was created to drive the National Shipbuilding Strategy Refresh, has now been established as an Office of Department. It continues to engage with colleagues across Government and industry to promote growth across the entire UK shipbuilding sector.
For example, the UK Shipbuilding Skills Taskforce, led by the Department for Education, meets monthly to look at how we can ensure the UK's shipbuilding industry has a skilled workforce for the future. Working with representatives from across the shipbuilding industry, the NSO also leads on the Shipbuilding Enterprise for Growth which aims to tackle barriers to growth, boost exports and grow high-value skilled jobs across the UK shipbuilding enterprise.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department has taken to strengthen security and defence cooperation with Australia.
Answered by James Heappey
As a partner of 50 years in the Five Power Defence Arrangements and fellow Five Eyes country, Australia is an indispensable friend in the Indo-Pacific.
The Defence Secretary recently returned from a UK-Australia ministerial dialogue where he agreed concrete steps to deepen strategic defence cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, enabled by additional deployments and facilitated by an enhanced British Defence Staff in Canberra. Alongside these, AUKUS is a further demonstration of our commitment to Australia, and to Indo-Pacific security more widely.