Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the independent report written by the hon. Member for Ludlow entitled Growing the contribution of defence to UK prosperity, published by his Department on 9 July 2018, if he will issue a formal response to each recommendation made in that report.

I am grateful to my hon. friend the Member for Ludlow for his work in undertaking this review, which supports both the National Security Objective to Promote Prosperity as well as the goals set out the Industrial Strategy White Paper published last November. This is an important piece of work. The Government will now consider his recommendations in detail and publish a response in due course.