Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the new approach towards engagement with overseas-based defence suppliers set out in the White Paper National Security Through Technology, Cmd 8278.

The Defence and Security Industrial Engagement Policy (DSIEP) has made good progress since it was launched in the National Security Through Technology White Paper in February 2012. DSIEP tracked over £400 million of inward investment by overseas companies during 2012. This rose to nearly £500 million during 2013. With eight companies now signed up to DSIEP and discussions under way with several others, we hope that this figure will continue to rise. This compares favourably with the previous policy of Industrial Participation. In addition to this quantitative assessment, the Department is in the early stages of a Qualitative assessment of DSIEP and will be engaging with the DSIEP signatories and Defence academics to ensure this is robust.