Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking to ensure that UK suppliers are supported during the manufacture of the Type 26 Frigate programme.

Procurement programmes do not routinely set the requirements on where equipment or components are manufactured or assembled, unless there is a national security requirement to do so. This is a matter for the equipment and component suppliers, and the lead contractors.

In both cases, the Aircraft Carrier Alliance whose membership consists of BAE Systems, Babcock and Thales UK, and the lead contractor for the Type 26 Frigate programme, BAE Systems, have selected the majority of sub-contractors for the programmes through competition. UK suppliers have had an equal opportunity to bid for work on the two programmes, with selections based on price and the ability of suppliers to meet schedule and performance requirements.

The majority of the structural steel for the Queen Elizabeth Class Aircraft Carrier programme was supplied by Tata UK and the programme as a whole sustained thousands of jobs throughout the UK supply chain. On the Type 26 programme to date, 64 sub-contracts have been awarded to UK based companies including the gas turbines (Rolls Royce), propulsion system (General Electric) and gearboxes (David Brown Gear Systems) and air weapons handling system (Babcock). We anticipate that more UK based sub-contractors will continue to be appointed as the programme progresses.