Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his department is taking to ensure UK defence manufacturers benefit from the new NATO commitment to expand collective manufacturing capacity.

The Department is working to ensure UK defence manufacturers benefit from NATO’s focus on expanding collective manufacturing capacity by leveraging NATO mechanisms, including the Defence Production Action Plan, the NATO Defence Industrial Production Board, and the Innovation Scale-Up Package, to boost an aggregated demand, improve interoperability, strengthen supply chain resilience, and provide clearer long-term demand signals to industry. The Defence Industrial Strategy and Defence Investment Plan reinforce this approach by supporting collaborative programmes with NATO Allies, including deep precision strike, air defence, autonomous systems, munitions production, future combat air and anti-submarine warfare, while helping UK firms access new export and multinational procurement opportunities and take advantage of the shift to “always on production".