Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 20 November 2023 to Question 1812 on Defence: Employment, what steps he plans to take to help (a) upskill and (b) reskill workers in the defence sector to adapt to new technologies.

In the 2023 Defence Command Paper Refresh we committed to upskilling our people in digital, nuclear, space, cyber, and Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. We are already working with industry and academia to nurture a collaborative ecosystem and ensure we grow these skills nationally.

We are supporting skills development for now and the future across major programmes and supply chains that stretch right across the UK.

For example, in the air sector, the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP) is driving the development of entirely new industrial processes and blending digital twinning - open architecture, AI, and robotic engineering - to create a truly cutting-edge capability.