Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment his Department has made of the effect on military research and development of the UK leaving the EU without a deal.

The Ministry of Defence does not anticipate any significant effect on military Research and Development should the UK leave the EU without a deal and has put in place plans to manage the most likely short-term impacts.

We will continue to work with our European partners to improve our defence capabilities through co-operative research and armaments projects via our existing bilateral and multilateral relationships - and much of this already takes place outside an EU framework. This will help UK defence industry to continue to operate effectively in the global markets as a trusted, capable, collaborative partner.