Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what estimate he has made of the proportion of UK steel and steel products procured by his Department in (a) 2017 and (b) 2018.

The Ministry of Defence does not hold a central record of the origin of all steel used in defence equipment projects. This is because steel for our major programmes is mainly sourced by our prime contractors and the supply chains are complex.

UK suppliers have, however, made a significant contribution to the supply of steel for some of our largest defence equipment projects, including 88% of the structural steel for the Queen Elizabeth Class Aircraft Carriers and 50% of the value of the steel required for the Batch 1 Type 26 ships. The specialist nature of some of our steel requirements means that UK steel producers do not always have the capability to supply our programmes.

This Government is committed to creating the right conditions in the UK for a competitive and sustainable steel industry. It publishes its future pipeline for steel requirements, together with data on how Departments are complying with steel procurement guidance on:

www.gov.uk/government/publications/steel-public-procurement.

This enables UK steel manufacturers to better plan and bid for Government contracts.