Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 30 November 2023 to Question 3703 on National Shipbuilding Office, what the proportion of UK content required was under each of the contracts.

This Government upholds the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2013. Therefore, a minimum 10% of any public procurement bid evaluation should pay regard to delivering “social value”.

Going further, in the National Shipbuilding Strategy Refresh 2022, the Defence Secretary committed MOD shipbuilding procurements to increase this to a minimum of 20% for new programmes. Social value policy is a proven tool for delivering downstream benefits to the UK in skills, supply chain opportunities, green technology, and innovation.