Oral Answers to Questions

Sadik Al-Hassan Excerpts

Monday 3rd November 2025 Commons Chamber

[Luke Pollard]

I am grateful to the right hon. Gentleman for raising the important role that universities play. In the defence industrial strategy, published a few months ago, we set out our ambition to create a defence universities alliance, bringing together the very best cutting-edge research that is being done in our universities. We are working with Universities UK to put that together, and there will be further announcements in short order, but I hope that the universities on the right hon. Gentleman’s patch will participate so that we can grow our economy and keep our nation safe.

[Sadik Al-Hassan (North Somerset) (Lab)]

4. What steps he is taking to increase innovation in the defence sector.

[Noah Law (St Austell and Newquay) (Lab)]

16. What steps he is taking to increase innovation in the defence sector.

[The Minister for Defence Readiness and Industry (Luke Pollard)]

As we move towards warfighting readiness, the Government are investing more of our rising defence budget in new technologies and innovation, and the need for more innovative solutions to address emerging challenges is paramount in these darker and more dangerous times. On 1 July we launched UK Defence Innovation, a £400 million fund, and we will spend 10% of the equipment budget on innovative technologies that will deliver for defence.

[Sadik Al-Hassan]

What pathways and training programmes are Ministers establishing to ensure that young people, such as those in my constituency, can develop the specialist skills that they need in order to become the defence innovators of the future? Is the Minister working with local colleges, universities and defence industry employers to create hubs of apprenticeships and career opportunities?

[Luke Pollard]

As a fellow south-west MP, I know just how important it is for us to invest in defence skills in the south-west and across the United Kingdom. The defence industrial strategy includes the £182 million package that we will deliver via defence technical excellence colleges with our colleagues in the Department for Education, but we need to go further, encouraging all our defence businesses—big and small—to invest in skills so that we have the workforce of the future, able to deliver those cutting-edge technologies. I shall be happy to meet my hon. Friend to discuss what more we can do in Somerset.