Oral Question·Ministry of Defence
“What steps his Department is taking to expedite defence procurement.”
Tabled: 21 May 2026Answered: 1 June 2026
Asked by
Edward Morello
Liberal Democrat — West Dorset
Answering Minister
the Secretary of State for Defence
Answer from Hansard
The Minister for Defence Readiness and Industry (Luke Pollard)
We inherited a broken procurement system of red tape, delays and high costs. Some 47 of 49 major defence programmes were delayed or not on budget when we came to office. We are speeding up procurement, buying British and aiming to increase direct SME spend by 50%, which represents an extra £2.5 billion that we will spend with UK SMEs.