Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department has taken to ensure secure military communications hardware procurement maintains sovereign capability.

Whilst the Ministry of Defence's default approach is for open procurement, which eases interoperability with our international partners, there are a few cases where our objectives are served by specific sector approaches, which help either to deliver value-for-money, operational advantage or national freedom of action. One such sector is the high-grade cryptography required to protect our secure military communications; this creates a sovereign requirement to control cryptographic hardware production, deployment and support.

In addition, we continue to take a broader risk-based approach to the provision of military capability, which includes balancing the accessibility of widely used commercial technology, general military technology and bespoke sovereign technology. Consequently, the acquisition strategies for military capabilities are kept under review by the MOD's delivery agencies to ensure that they remain fit for purpose. To safeguard national security, it would not be appropriate to identify publicly further details of the aspects of capabilities we might regard as critical to be maintained in the UK and how we assure them.