Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to page 56 of his department's Strategic Defence Review, published 2 June 2025, what progress his department has made in regularly revisiting key priorities, cutting projects that are not delivering and ensuring headroom in the budget for emerging themes.

The department’s research priorities remain agile, based around responding to the problem set provided by the MSHQ to the National Armaments Director whilst sustaining critical science and technology capabilities required for Defence – and routinely halting projects as circumstances dictate. The NAD Group's move towards a portfolio approach will improve this agility, allowing new work addressing emerging priorities to be commissioned and funding reallocated at greater pace, with an appropriate headroom held at portfolio level.