Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the Ministry of Defence's reliance on Microsoft products and cloud services; and what steps they are taking to ensure resilience and competition in the procurement of digital infrastructure.

Microsoft products and services provide core productivity, collaboration, cyber security and infrastructure capabilities across Defence and are critical to the operation of enterprise and operational ICT services. The Ministry of Defence's (MOD) use of Microsoft reflects long-standing operational, security and interoperability requirements. Microsoft technologies are widely used across Government and by NATO allies, supporting collaboration and interoperability. The MOD keeps its reliance on strategic technology suppliers under regular review and is pursuing a multi-cloud and hybrid-cloud strategy to strengthen resilience.