Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the UK’s defence industrial base to support rapid mobilisation and sustained conflict.

The Department regularly assesses the Defence enterprise’s ability to respond swiftly to sustained conflict. Additional measures to support rapid mobilisation and sustained readiness were outlined in the Defence Industrial Strategy and the Strategic Defence Review. The current strategy prioritises resilience by developing integrated and assured supply chains, scalable production capacity, and an “always-on” munitions capability that can be rapidly expanded. Working across Government and with international partners, significant progress is already underway.

Key initiatives include regular wargaming exercises with industry, reforms to commercial processes, establishing a dedicated scenario planning and modelling capability and developing potential legislative powers to remove barriers and accelerate delivery of critical projects.