Member

Thirdly, on the defence supply chain, the Black Country has deep links to defence manufacturing, and two issues may impact on the positive changes in the Bill. The first is export licensing timelines, because excessive delays can kill a contract, and the second is the growing concern about environmental, social and governance-related access to finance. These are practical problems when a legitimate UK defence supplier struggles to access competitively priced finance, because lenders’ policies treat defence as reputationally high risk. I ask the Government to ensure that our regulatory architecture does not accidentally penalise lawful, strategically important businesses and industries in the defence sector.