Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the establishment of new SSN-AUKUS facilities in Australia on levels of workforce retention at conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarines (SSN) facilities in (a) Barrow-in-Furness and (b) Plymouth.

AUKUS Pillar 1 cannot be realised without the essential personnel and expertise needed to design, build, operate, maintain and decommission SSNs, but it also offers an unprecedented opportunity to integrate and grow the submarine building workforce of all three partners. It will create thousands of jobs in all three countries, and we are confident that the UK’s world-leading facilities will continue to attract the very best personnel, with the Team Barrow and Team Plymouth initiatives further enhancing this.

Some movement is inevitable and reflects the benefits of global mobility. Our AUKUS partners respect the joint nature of this programme and the fact that through it we will develop more resilient skills bases in each country.