Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what proportion of steel used in projects and in equipment procured by his Department in each of the last six years was manufactured in the UK.

Steel has been sourced by our contractors from a range of UK and international suppliers, reflecting the need to ensure a competitive price and delivery at the required time and quality, and UK suppliers have made a significant contribution to this.

Supply chains are complex and the Ministry of Defence (MOD) does not hold a complete, centralised record of steel procurement for projects and equipment, either in terms of quantity or country of origin, over the past six years. But for the largest defence procurement project during this period, construction of the two Queen Elizabeth Class Aircraft Carriers, some 77,000 tonnes out of a total of 82,000 tonnes of steel used was manufactured in the UK.

Our new Government guidelines, which have been implemented in the MOD, will help UK steel suppliers to compete effectively for future defence projects.