Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to page 10 of his Department’s Defence Industrial Strategy, published 8 September 2025, what progress his Department has made on boosting defence supply chain workforces across the country through a new apprenticeship and graduate clearing system.

As set out in the Defence Industrial Strategy, MOD are working with industry partners to explore an apprenticeship and graduate clearing system. This will be a mechanism to redirect talented applicants who are unsuccessful in securing opportunities with Prime contractors towards suitable vacancies across the wider defence supply chain, helping to retain talent within the sector and support SMEs access skilled talent.

We are working with The 5% Club on a pilot for this system, which is currently being developed. Further details will be announced in due course.