Mr Calvin Bailey

Perhaps I will come on to that point shortly. Small innovative firms are the bedrock of UK innovation. They are also the bedrock of our commitment and delivery in Ukraine. Ensuring that they have every opportunity to access defence opportunities is a priority for this Government. That is why, as part of the root-and-branch modernisation of the Ministry of Defence, we are establishing UK Defence Innovation, a new team with a ringfenced annual budget of at least £400 million and planned investment of £1.6 billion by 2030. UKDI is helping up-and-coming enterprises to develop new technologies and move them more rapidly into service, maximising the military and economic impact of that investment. UKDI is part of our new National Armaments Innovation organisation, which unites our development accelerator with the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, under the leadership and co-ordination of a three-star director general. DSTL continues to play a vital role in defence research, working with industry and academic partners to look beyond the immediate horizon at threats and opportunities from emerging areas, such as quantum, engineering, biology and future computing. Alongside that, we are bolstering the links between Government, industry and academia. The Defence Universities Alliance is bringing together universities and defence to accelerate research, develop skills and increase the commercialisation of new technologies. At the heart of this agenda are people. We have committed £182 million to defence skills initiatives, supporting education, training and workforce development throughout the country. This investment will help improve science, technology, engineering and mathematics participation, increase capacity in the education system, and ensure that people have the skills they need to succeed in the defence sector. We are investing in defence technical excellence colleges and supporting hundreds of doctoral researchers working on technologies that are vital to the country’s future prosperity and security. We are securing the highly specialised workforce needed to develop and support future nuclear submarine and deterrent programmes, with £290 million committed to developing nuclear skills that support recruitment and training across the defence nuclear enterprise. I am surprised not to hear an intervention from my hon. Friend the Member for Barrow and Furness (Michelle Scrogham). The sector supports around 440,000 jobs and more than 24,000 apprenticeships across the UK. We are creating even more highly skilled, highly valued defence innovation employment opportunities, which will benefit communities for decades to come. Those are not confined to London or the south-east; they can be found in cities, towns and communities across every region and nation of the United Kingdom. We have launched defence growth deals, backed by £250 million, in Plymouth, Yorkshire, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. These partnerships are designed to attract further investment, strengthen local industrial capability, support innovation and create long-term economic growth. By aligning defence investment with regional strengths, we are helping to ensure that the benefits of defence spending are shared across the whole country. Strengthening British exports is key. From day one, we have been clear that this Government view defence through an international lens. The UK has been one of the world’s leading defence exporters over the past decade, with defence exports worth £14.5 billion in 2023, and defence R&D has played an important role in securing that position. Continued investment in research and innovation, and our role in transformational programmes such as AUKUS and the global combat air programme, ensures that British companies remain internationally competitive.