Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Philip Dunne and Daniel Zeichner

Monday 18th April 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Dunne]

As I indicated earlier this afternoon, NATO makes the definition and assesses the contributions that are made by each member nation to its return. It is not for the United Kingdom to make that determination; it is for NATO to do so.

[Daniel Zeichner (Cambridge) (Lab)]

13. What steps his Department is taking to support British jobs and industry through its procurement process.

[The Minister for Defence Procurement (Mr Philip Dunne)]

In the recent strategic defence and security review, the Ministry of Defence agreed a new strategic objective of contributing to the nation’s prosperity. We do that in many ways, not least by spending some £20 billion a year with industry, around half of which is in the manufacturing sector, and some £4 billion with small and medium-sized enterprises.

[Daniel Zeichner]

Will the Minister tell the House just how much his Department has saved by buying cheap steel from Sweden? Does he think that that in any way offsets the devastating impact on our steel industry?

[Mr Dunne]

I am in a position to update the House on the steel component of the aircraft carrier contract, which is much the largest defence procurement contract. Of the structural steel, some 95,000 tonnes have been procured from UK steel mills over the period of that contract.