Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to page 77 of his Department’s Strategic Defence Review, published 2 June 2025, what progress he has made on drawing on cross-government and external expertise, especially in academia and industry.

There are multiple teams across Defence working to deliver this recommendation.

The Secretary of State's Office of Net Assessment and Challenge (SONAC) are leading on co-ordinating the delivery of this outcome. They have conducted an internal review of barriers to engaging expertise, including a survey of nearly 300 officials and national security experts. They are implementing a plan to remove these barriers, including increasing the number of security cleared external experts, increasing the numbers of forums for engagement and improving the way external expertise is integrated into Defence decision making.

Across Defence there are initiatives to cohere and improve engagement with external experts. The Office of the Chief Scientific Advisor, alongside the Growth and Missions team, launched the Defence Universities Alliance in July, connecting 35 universities with the Ministry of Defence and the Armed Forces to boost defence technology research and specialist skills.

The Defence Nuclear Organisation continues to run the Nuclear Deterrence Fund which supports research that furthers our understanding of nuclear deterrence issues. The fund is designed to stimulate wider UK expertise in the field and to generate a research base to support nuclear deterrence policymaking.