UK-Norway Defence Agreement: Impact in Scotland

Lord Browne of Ladyton Excerpts

Wednesday 5th November 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Lemos (Lab)]

I thank the noble Baroness for that question. That sounds like an excellent suggestion and I will certainly pass it on to the Secretary to State. I should be delighted to attend myself; I am looking forward to visiting some of these facilities with my noble friend Lady Curran. I should say that, in Scotland, defence directly employs 4,000 civil servants and 10,000 serving personnel. MoD spending with UK industry and commerce in Scotland in 2024-25 was £2.1 billion, £1.3 billion of which was on shipbuilding and repair, including submarines, and—this is an important point—£23 million of which went directly to SMEs. We are very committed and, as the noble Baroness says, we hope to make sure that the Scottish Government are too.

[Lord Browne of Ladyton (Lab)]

My Lords, many, including many noble Lords, rightly believe that the renaissance of shipbuilding in the UK is a direct consequence of Sir John Parker’s review of the 2017 shipbuilding strategy, which reported in 2019, and his recommendations that the industry could be transformed by simplifying governance, securing long-term funding, and improving competitiveness to boost skills and engineering. May I suggest to my noble friend that the Secretary of State for Defence and the Minister for Procurement meet with Sir John, if they have not already done so, to discuss whether the Parker approach would be to the benefit of all military manufacturing in the UK, in particular the manufacturing of drones and drone-hunting technology?

[Lord Lemos (Lab)]

I thank my noble friend. He draws our attention to a very important development in the defence world of drones and their procurement. I am sure that my right honourable friend the Secretary of State will be happy to meet Sir John Parker, as he suggests. As was in that review, though, the key to this is not just investment. It is about skills, as we have already highlighted, but also innovation, research and development, supply chain innovation, and the speed to market. All those points would come out in the meeting that my noble friend suggests.