Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent assessment he has made of the effect on the defence and aerospace industry of the UK leaving the EU.

The Ministry of Defence is working closely with defence industry and other Government Departments to understand the implications and opportunities presented by the UK's departure from the European Union.

Through our future partnership with the European Union, we want to explore how best to ensure that our industries can continue working together to deliver the capabilities that we need to protect the UK and its allies and partners.

It is worth noting that current major European collaborative capability projects, such as the Typhoon programme, are managed bilaterally or with groups of partners, rather than through the EU.