Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have made an assessment of the potential contribution to addressing regional imbalances of locating one of the proposed "always-on" munitions factories in the North East.

It is vital we invest our defence spending across UK whenever possible to grow our economy and industrial base. As set out in our recent publication UK Defence Footprint, MoD spent £178 million in the North East in 2024 to 2025. To support economic growth, our industrial base and defence capacity, we have committed £1.5 billion in the Strategic Defence Review to move munitions production to “always on” and build six new munitions and energetics factories, taking our total munitions spend this parliament to £6 billion. The MOD is carefully considering arrangements for those factories, including their potential locations, and more detail will be set out in due course.