Tom Pursglove
Main Page: Tom Pursglove (Conservative - Corby)Department Debates - View all Tom Pursglove's debates with the Ministry of Defence
(7 years, 7 months ago)
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Harriett Baldwin
The hon. Lady rightly speaks up for steel production in her constituency. She will be very pleased to know that, for the largest project that the UK Government have ever procured that uses steel—she will be aware that that is the carrier programme currently under construction on the Clyde—the vast majority comes from Tata Steel. I believe it is 94%.
Tom Pursglove (Corby) (Con)
I wholly support the increasing use of small firms for defence procurement, but will the Minister undertake to encourage those small firms to use British steel wherever possible?
Harriett Baldwin
My hon. Friend is absolutely right that it is a process of encouraging competition not only within the procurement process, but where there are long lead-time items. In our strategic defence and security review, we clearly set out the largest programme of investment in ships for some time, and there will be a lot of long lead-time items. Small business and producers will be able to work with those who are procuring contracts with prime contractors to find a place in that supply chain.