Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how his Department plans to mitigate the potential impact of high inflation on defence programmes.

Inflation is a pressing concern for Defence and we are taking steps to actively manage it.

A number of our existing controls continue to shield us from the full impact of rising prices. We have used pricing mechanisms where inflation risk sits with suppliers to prevented higher prices for our contacts being passed on to us.

We have also engaged in the forward purchasing of fuels, utilities and foreign exchange, which have provided stability in these recently volatile markets.

Furthermore, we have implemented changes to commercial policy to manage inflation such as making greater use of index-linked fixed price contracts and engaging with our main suppliers to discuss how inflation will be treated in future contracts.

Finally, we have worked closely with the Treasury to support the halving of inflation.