Oral Answers to Questions

Nadhim Zahawi Excerpts

Monday 20th February 2012 Commons Chamber

The Secretary of State was asked—

[Nadhim Zahawi (Stratford-on-Avon) (Con)]

1. What steps he is taking to balance his Department’s budget.

[The Secretary of State for Defence (Mr Philip Hammond)]

The Ministry of Defence is undertaking its annual budget-setting process, in which I am personally engaged. I am increasingly confident that we will achieve a sustainable and balanced defence budget for the first time in a decade or more, and I hope to be in a position to make an announcement to the House shortly.

[Nadhim Zahawi]

I thank my right hon. Friend for that answer and for the good news that we will be balancing the budget. Will he say a little more about research and development co-operation with France on the unmanned fighter drone and on other matters? How will that affect our ability to balance the budget?

[Mr Hammond]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his question. As he will know, I was with the Prime Minister in Paris last Friday, when we confirmed that we will take forward the assessment phase of the medium altitude long endurance unmanned aerial vehicle with the French. Clearly, we can co-operate on many areas with France, a country with a broadly similar industrial base and defence budget to our own. Such co-operation will be to the benefit of both countries, and I intend to explore all those opportunities.