I have a lot of time for the hon. and gallant Member, but I will take no lessons from Opposition Members on the state of defence housing. He will have heard the commitment I made earlier about the £9 billion of investment that was reiterated in the DIP. I can also tell him that we will be refurbishing another 2,000 homes across the UK in the next 12 months alone. I understand why he raises the point in the way that he does, but I hope he will accept the importance that we attach to ensuring that those who serve have the best standard of accommodation.

I am sorry that the shadow Minister missed my concluding remarks at the end of the Opposition day debate on the subject last week. Not once did he say why his Government started that deal; nor did he give details of the preparatory work that his Government were supposed to do to answer his own question. This deal secures the future of that UK-US base. We will continue working closely with our American allies to progress the deal, and will continue those conversations, but I am afraid that all the shadow Minister is asking for is more uncertainty. We are securing the future of that base; he is just talking it down.

What a load of nonsense. We are increasing defence spending, with £5 billion extra in our budget this year. We are moving to spending 2.5% of GDP on defence three years before anyone thought it was possible. The defence investment plan will set out what we are investing in and how we are moving towards warfighting readiness and implementing the strategic defence review. If the hon. Gentleman’s Government had put in that kind of investment, we would not be sorting out the mess we are in today. But they did not, so we are.

As part of the Defence Industrial Strategy, we announced a £182 million skills package that will attract, develop and retain the high-skilled workforce required to meet the objectives of the Strategic Defence Review. This investment in skills, in addition to the creation of the Defence Office for Small Business Growth, will help defence companies across the UK, including those in the Oxford to Cambridge Growth Corridor. Further details will be announced with the publication of the Defence Finance and Investment Strategy in 2026.

Quite simply, we have boosted defence investment. We have done so by a record amount since the end of the cold war, and three years earlier than the Conservatives’ unfunded plans proposed. Since the election, we have signed over 1,000 major contracts, 84% of them with British firms. We have brought £1.7 billion of foreign direct investment into defence, and we have won major export deals that the Conservatives never managed. On Monday, the Prime Minister and I signed an £8 billion deal with Turkey to buy 20 British Typhoons, which will help secure 20,000 jobs in the wider supply chain for the years to come. I would like to hear Conservative Members welcome that.

I welcome the hon. Gentleman to the Dispatch Box and to the Conservative Front Bench team, alongside his two very distinguished colleagues, the right hon. Member for Rayleigh and Wickford (Mr Francois) and the hon. Member for South Suffolk (James Cartlidge). I gently say to him that, since the election, his colleague the shadow Defence Secretary argued 13 times for 2.5% by 2030. He only changed his tune after February, when the Prime Minister showed how it was going to be funded and said that we would do it three years earlier, in 2027. We have shown how we will raise the extra funding for this record increase in investment in defence since the end of the cold war. We have shown exactly how it is costed and exactly how it will be funded in this Parliament, and in the next Parliament we will do the same.

As set out in the SDR, we have identified £6 billion of new savings over the course of this Parliament, through efficiency and productivity savings, civilian workforce changes, structural simplification and contractual efficiencies.

Alongside the Defence Investment Plan later this year, the Ministry of Defence (MOD) will publish a Defence Reform and Efficiency Plan, which will provide further detail on the range of reforms across the MOD which will deliver these efficiencies.

First, let me congratulate President Macron on laying on an incredible summit in Paris which brought together Governments, tech companies and investors. Britain’s voice was heard loud and clear, which is why we are delivering such extraordinary investment into this country. The Labour Government signed up to and fully engaged with most of the aspects that were negotiated. In a few areas, we will put Britain’s interests first. A couple of other countries did not sign, either, but I did not hear the hon. Gentleman criticising them.

The Procurement Act 2023 introduces reforms intended to make it easier for small businesses to access public sector procurements, including a requirement for contracting authorities to consider barriers to participation and whether they can be removed or reduced.

UK industry partners of all sizes, including SMEs, are at the heart of our One Defence approach and we recognise the vital contribution they make in driving economic growth and strengthening our national security.

The Defence Industrial Strategy will set the conditions to unlock the full potential of SMEs to innovate at pace and seize future opportunities.

This Government is committed to improving the UK Defence industrial base to ensure a robust Defence sector and provide greater certainty in procurement processes. The Statement of Intent for the Defence Industrial Strategy, published on 2 December 2024, set out a commitment to prioritise UK businesses for investment, provide certainty and stability and boost sovereign capacity. As part of the Defence Industrial Strategy, we will reform Mininstry of Defence procurement and acquisition processes to ensure we deliver the capabilities defence requires now and in the future, whilst reducing waste, supporting growth and ensuring compliance with our obligations under our international trade agreements.

Micro, small and medium sized businesses make a vital contribution to economic growth and are a valuable source of technical innovation in defence. This is recognised in the recently published Defence Industrial Strategy Statement of Intent. We work with our largest suppliers through a network of their SME Champions, trade associations and SME representatives to ensure that SMEs have fair access to opportunities in our supply chain and that our prime contractors are adopting policies, such as fair payment practices, that support small businesses working in defence. We are also engaging with our industrial partners of all sizes to develop a new SME Action Plan which will simplify and make more accessible opportunities to Defence contracts for smaller suppliers.

Micro, small and medium sized businesses make a vital contribution to economic growth and are a valuable source of technical innovation in defence. This is recognised in the recently published Defence Industrial Strategy Statement of Intent. We work with our largest suppliers through a network of their SME Champions, trade associations and SME representatives to ensure that SMEs have fair access to opportunities in our supply chain and that our prime contractors are adopting policies, such as fair payment practices, that support small businesses working in defence. We are also engaging with our industrial partners of all sizes to develop a new SME Action Plan which will simplify and make more accessible opportunities to Defence contracts for smaller suppliers.

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) is taking steps itself to secure important skills in areas such as digital, cyber, STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths), nuclear and space. As we tackle these challenges we will continue to work closely with industry partners of all sizes. Our strategic suppliers have identified SME Champions and there is now regular engagement between them and the department, focusing upon how industry and MOD should improve their practice to better support SMEs.

We also work with other Government Departments and academia to ensure that we are growing and retaining these skills nationally.

Through the Defence STEM Steering Group, Defence and their national strategic partners are actively promoting engineering as an inclusive career field, supporting teacher training, and coordinating outreach activities to maximise efficiency.

The Ministry of Defence is committed to supporting micro, small and medium-sized technology companies. Through the Defence Industrial Strategy the department will foster a more diverse community of suppliers, including non-traditional suppliers, through reducing barriers to entry and setting the conditions that unlock the full potential of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs).

One of the ways we are already doing this is through the Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) with its remit to find and fund suppliers to deliver innovative projects to meet UK defence and security challenges. DASA also supports funded SMEs with additional business services to help scale up and commercialise their innovative ideas.

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) is taking steps itself to secure important skills in areas such as digital, cyber, STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths), nuclear and space. As we tackle these challenges we will continue to work closely with industry partners of all sizes. Our strategic suppliers have identified SME Champions and there is now regular engagement between them and the department, focusing upon how industry and MOD should improve their practice to better support SMEs.

We also work with other Government Departments and academia to ensure that we are growing and retaining these skills nationally.

Through the Defence STEM Steering Group, Defence and their national strategic partners are actively promoting engineering as an inclusive career field, supporting teacher training, and coordinating outreach activities to maximise efficiency.

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) is taking steps itself to secure important skills in areas such as digital, cyber, STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths), nuclear and space. As we tackle these challenges we will continue to work closely with industry partners of all sizes. Our strategic suppliers have identified SME Champions and there is now regular engagement between them and the department, focusing upon how industry and MOD should improve their practice to better support SMEs.

We also work with other Government Departments and academia to ensure that we are growing and retaining these skills nationally.

Through the Defence STEM Steering Group, Defence and their national strategic partners are actively promoting engineering as an inclusive career field, supporting teacher training, and coordinating outreach activities to maximise efficiency.

Defence invests in high-risk, high-reward technology experimentation from across the Defence enterprise. Defence’s core Science, Innovation and Technology budgets (e.g. Defence Science & Technology Programme and Defence Innovation Fund) are led from Head Office and are the main contributors to this. There are further investments from the Capability Portfolios of each Top Level Budget (e.g. Strategic Programmes, Single Service Commands) and utilise constructs such as the RAF’s Rapid Capabilities Office.

Recent examples of such work include the Dragonfire Laser Directed Energy Weapon Demonstrator and the BriteCloud Expendable Active Decoy.

Defence’s Research and Innovation programmes are run according to best practice Portfolio, Programme and Project management Processes which aim to deliver defined outcomes and benefits that are then tracked and monitored.

The Ministry of Defence is currently undertaking the Defence Reform programme, which will determine the delivery and exploitation mechanisms for any ‘high-risk, high-reward’ technologies. This builds on both the current S&T portfolio processes and the ‘Spearhead’ and ‘Gamechanger’ initiatives which are currently experimenting ways to improve delivery.”