Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to his statement of 20 November 2024 on Defence Programmes Developments, Official Report columns 287 to 289, whether he had discussions on military capability retirements with his US counterpart before that statement.

The UK and US enjoy a close relationship across a range of Defence matters, and our senior officials and military keep one another informed on important developments and decisions in a timely manner, which occurred ahead of this statement as a matter of course.