Jim Allister

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stringer, and I commend the hon. Member for Newton Aycliffe and Spennymoor (Alan Strickland) for bringing this matter to the House. As has already been referred to, Northern Ireland has a rich history in defence and in the production necessary to maintain defence. That is true in the large business sector where, for example, we have Thales, which of course has led the way in next-generation defence equipment. The primary thing I will say to the Minister today, however, is that we also have a great layer of SMEs under that in Northern Ireland that are not getting a fair crack of the whip when it comes to MOD procurement. I say that on the strength of evidence given to a parliamentary inquiry by ADS Group—the trade association. It set out some very stark figures for 2022-23, the most recent year for which we have relevant data, that said that all the Government contracts to Northern Ireland SMEs in that year amounted to a paltry £2 million. For Scotland, the figure was £29 million and for the much-favoured south-west of England, the figure was £408 million. Even though 95% of ADS Group members are SMEs, Northern Ireland SMEs got only 0.15% of MOD expenditure in 2022-23. How can that be fair? My basic appeal to the Department and to the Minister is for fairness, a level playing field and equity in the distribution of contracts. We have remarkable skills in many of our SMEs and we have many leaders in the digital and technology sector. Some of them subcontract to Thales, but all those firms have much to contribute in their own right. I say to the Minister that we must bring some equity to the situation. It can never be fair that in 2022-23, the MOD’s per capita spend on all contracts was £100 in Northern Ireland, £380 in Scotland and England, and £250 in Wales. Let us have some levelling up.