Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what discussions (a) he and (b) his predecessors have had with the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy on the relevance of UK civil nuclear industry skills and supply chains to the maintaining of UK nuclear submarine and wider nuclear weapons capabilities in the last 10 years; and if he will make a statement.

We engage regularly with counterparts from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), other Government Departments and industry, to address the issue of nuclear skills across both the defence and civil nuclear sectors, and will continue to do so. The Ministry of Defence (MOD) and BEIS are represented on the cross-Government Nuclear Skills Strategy Group and Nuclear Industry Council, which provides senior level oversight. The MOD and BEIS co-chaired the UK Nuclear Skills Summit in March 2017, including key industry partners and the nuclear regulator, which discussed next steps for the work already underway across the nuclear skills agenda. In all discussions it is fully understood that civil and defence sectors must work together to make sure resource is prioritised appropriately for the protection and prosperity of the United Kingdom.