Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking to help increase the availability of labour for the defence manufacturing industry.

With over 100 apprenticeship schemes and 20,000 apprentices under training, defence is offering exciting opportunities to grow the skills we need, including in priority areas like the nuclear enterprise. We are working to improve this further, for example through the National Shipbuilding Office collaboration with the Department for Education to grow the UK Shipbuilding Skills Taskforce.