Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what consultations have taken place with the relevant trade unions on the National Shipbuilding Strategy in the last 12 months.

We value the support and contribution made by trade unions. Following on from Sir John Parker's trade union engagement prior to publishing his independent report, we have continued to keep trade unions involved as we develop the UK national shipbuilding strategy. Representatives from the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions (CSEU) and GMB have attended Industry stakeholder events. We also undertook a briefing on the shipbuilding strategy followed by a question and answer session at the CSEU Maritime Forum on 13 February 2017.