Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what progress he has made in identifying the barriers to private sector investment in the defence sector.

We will publish a Defence Finance and Investment Strategy (DFIS) in Autumn 2026, setting out how we will address barriers to financing and investment in the defence sector, including supporting businesses to access finance through partnerships with public financial institutions and private capital.

To identify these barriers, we have established the Defence Investors' Advisory Group, bringing together senior expertise from venture capital, private equity and banking. We are working closely with other government departments and considering fiscal, regulatory and industrial barriers to investment, including access to finance, debanking and other challenges affecting the flow of private capital into the defence sector.

To date, we have engaged with more than 150 stakeholders across investment, banking, public finance and defence and also convened four policy working groups to examine innovation, access to finance, supply chain resilience and environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations, alongside targeted engagement with industry and investment partners to inform the development of the Strategy.