Oral Answers to Questions Debate

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Department: Ministry of Defence

Oral Answers to Questions

Philip Hollobone Excerpts
Monday 20th September 2021

(2 years, 7 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Ben Wallace Portrait Mr Wallace
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No, I think I would just say that I have it on better authority than those academics that we have not.

Philip Hollobone Portrait Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)
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Will the Department use the combination of our EU exit, the Enterprise Act 2002 and the new social value rules from Her Majesty’s Treasury to ensure that more British ships are built and with more British content?

Ben Wallace Portrait Mr Wallace
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Yes, it is really important that we seek to build more British ships, but we should also recognise that there is an international collaboration on shipbuilding. I recently signed with the Indonesian Defence Minister to buy the design of the Arrowhead Type 31. That design originated in Denmark, but the intellectual property was shared with us, so we and British jobs now profit from that sale. International collaboration is important and it unlocks investment. We are now going to indicate the longest shipping pipeline for many decades so that British companies can invest knowing that there are ships in the pipeline.