Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how his Department plans to measure the impact of the UK Offset Policy proposed in the Defence Industrial Strategy.

As part of the Defence Industrial Strategy's commitment to backing British businesses, we launched a public consultation on a possible UK offset policy on 23 October. The consultation seeks input on key principles for implementation. It is essential that any offset policy is explored and developed in partnership with the defence sector so we should not pre-empt the outcome of this consultation. The Defence Industrial Strategy sets out the metrics for 'Backing UK Based Business' policies, effective monitoring and evaluation will be essential to our implementation plan.