Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the security risk and the impact on the resilience of the defence industry of the construction of vessels in China or Vietnam for the Defence Maritime Next Generation Service program.

Answered by Lord Coaker - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)

The construction locations of vessels being procured as part of the Defence Marine Services Next Generation In-Port Services contract do not present a risk to the security of the United Kingdom. Future maintenance of the vessels will take place in the UK.

The Government is stepping up its support for sovereign shipbuilding capabilities. The Procurement Act 2023 provides greater scope to strengthen supply chain visibility and drive social value. All options in and around this legislation are being explored to support the UK shipbuilding industry. In addition, the forthcoming Shipbuilding and Maritime Technology Action Plan will describe the new approach to oversight of ship and boatbuilding programmes across the strategic breadth of Government procurement.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to maintain combat aircraft manufacturing and assembly capacity in the UK.

Answered by Lord Coaker - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)

The Defence Industrial Strategy recognises combat air as a priority national security sub-sector, requiring a degree of autonomy in the UK. The Defence Industrial Strategy underlines this government's commitment to maintaining sovereign capabilities across the Defence enterprise. The United Kingdom already has a world-class combat air production and manufacturing ecosystem, supported through large-scale international partnerships as well as targeted domestic investment.

Steps taken to maintain this capacity include the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP), supporting export campaigns of Typhoon aircraft, upgrading our own combat aircraft, and continuing our investment in the global F-35 programme.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to supporting the smelting of scrap copper in the UK instead of exportation.

Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

Government recognises copper’s importance, which is why DBT designated copper a growth mineral in the Critical Minerals (CM) Strategy and funded a study by the CM Intelligence Centre assessing copper scrap and waste flows, to help inform circularity in the UK.

This government is committed to transitioning towards a circular economy where resources are in use for longer and waste is designed out. Defra will soon publish a Circular Economy Growth Plan setting out how government will deliver a more circular and more prosperous economy. We will consider the evidence for action right across the economy and evaluate interventions needed.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that police have adequate powers to detain vehicles with number plates that are non-readable by automatic number plate recognition systems in order to assess whether the vehicle or driver have committed other offences.

Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)

This Government takes road safety extremely seriously and is committed to reducing the numbers of those killed and injured on our roads, as well as tackling behaviours that make our roads less safe. We have tough penalties and rigorous enforcement in place to deter offending behaviour. The government published the Road Safety Strategy on 7 January which consults on a number of motoring offences, including tougher enforcement to tackle illegal number plates. Police have a suite of powers to deal with vehicles being driven illegally, anti-socially or carelessly and without insurance or a driving licence. These powers include seizure and disposal of vehicles involved in offences. Police also have the power to stop a vehicle so that further investigation of potential offences can take place.The Government is also working with the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency, the National Police Chiefs’ Council, the police and industry to improve the identification and enforcement of number plate crime.