Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what discussions he has had with (a) EU and (b) other European counterparts on the potential merits for UK industry of the proposed PESCO European Patrol Corvette joint tendering exercise.

The UK Government regularly discusses defence and security issues with our NATO Allies and European partners, but has not had any discussions on the Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) European Patrol Corvette project.

The UK has applied to join the PESCO Military Mobility project. We continue to monitor other PESCO projects as they develop, but have no intention to apply to join any of them at this time.