Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to page 90 of his Department's Strategic Defence Review, published 2 June 2025, what steps he has taken to provide additional capabilities for the protection of bases and CNI in the event of (a) crisis and (b) conflict.

The Strategic Defence Review committed to strengthening the protection of Defence bases and Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) in crisis and conflict. Defence is investing an additional £470 million to improve the security of military sites in the UK. This is supportive of broader home defence planning to ensure the resilience of the UK’s most important CNI. By contributing Defence data to the Cabinet Office's CNI Knowledge Base, we are fulfilling the commitments set out in the Resilience Action Plan and improving our understanding of the infrastructure, dependencies and vulnerabilities that would be most critical in a conflict scenario.

This analysis is informing our Home Defence planning by ensuring that we align Defence resources and capabilities to the protection of the most important infrastructure against a broad spectrum of threats, from hybrid activity through to conventional conflict. It will also help to identify what Defence could contribute to support the protection of other priority CNI that is essential to the functioning of the country.

Through the Defence Investment Plan and the wider Home Defence Programme, we are also investing in capabilities including Integrated Air and Missile Defence. Defence is investing £240 million in Project PRESAGIUM, an enhanced counter-drone system, providing effective detection and defeat of emerging drone threats. We are growing and equipping the Reserves to support Homeland Defence tasks and enhancing capabilities to protect critical underwater infrastructure. Our Integrated Air and Missile Defence capabilities will be prioritised against the assessed threat as part of the future Integrated Force.