Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what internal audit mechanisms are in place to ensure that defense transformation is aligned to the strategic priorities of the National Security Strategy 2025.

The Strategic Defence Review (SDR) (published on 2 June 2025) and the National Security Strategy (published on 24 June 2025) were aligned in recognising the importance of transformation through warfighting readiness, a strengthened NATO, innovation by learning the lessons from Ukraine and industrial resilience. This was further developed through the Defence Industrial Strategy (published in September 2025) and the Defence Investment Plan (published in June 2026). An internal Defence plan ensures that Defence transformation aligns with the strategic priorities in the National Security Strategy, and these other documents, to provide central direction to the Department to implement.

Following publication of the National Security Strategy, the Government agreed an implementation framework to monitor progress over the course of this Parliament and across all involved departments. This framework is classified but the Ministry of Defence is fully engaged.