Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many highly skilled jobs (a) in total and (b) at Rolls Royce's Filton facility will be created as a result of the agreement between the UK and Japanese Governments to develop a joint jet engine demonstrator.

The UK is delighted to work with Japan, a close and highly capable partner, on plans to develop a combat air engine demonstrator. Work on the joint engine demonstrator will kickstart early this year, with the UK initially investing £30 million in planning, digital designs and innovative manufacturing developments. A further £200 million of UK funding is expected to go towards developing a full-scale demonstrator power system, supporting hundreds of highly skilled jobs, including many at Rolls-Royce’s Filton facility in Bristol.

Rolls Royce have indicated that the first stage of this work is expected to support up to 50 jobs, to establish the demonstrator design requirements and associated collaboration arrangements. The total number of highly skilled jobs at the Filton facility will be subject to the output of this phase but is expected to increase from 2023.

The demonstrator will support the broader FCAS programme, which already employs over 2,000 highly skilled personnel including engineers and programmers. The FCAS programme entered the Concept and Assessment Phase last year and our industry partners are increasing their recruitment of highly skilled personnel to support this work. The development of innovative technologies critical to the future of the Defence aerospace industry will bring together some of the very best design and manufacturing engineers, programme managers, and commercial specialists in the UK Defence industry.