Eighty-five per cent of the Ministry of Defence’s direct spending with industry on manufacturing pays for work taking place in the UK, and the department is mapping its supply chains to improve its view of overseas dependencies, according to an answer given in Parliament.
Lee Anderson, the Reform UK MP for Ashfield, asked what assessment had been made of trends in the British armed forces’ reliance on overseas manufacturing.
Luke Pollard, Minister for Defence Readiness and Industry, replied: “The Ministry of Defence is always open to working with international companies, as long as our procurement guidelines are followed and our national security is kept safe. The Department continually assesses overseas dependencies within Defence supply chains and is improving its visibility of these dependencies through supply-chain mapping, programme-level assessments and its Supply Chain Resilience Intelligence Performance Tool (SCRIPT) analytical capability. 85% of MOD’s direct expenditure with industry on manufacturing is for work taking place in the UK.”
Figures released in December 2024 put total spending with industry and commerce at £34.6 billion in 2023-24, including Foreign Military Sales and direct payments to foreign governments, of which £5.5 billion, or 16 per cent, related to work outside the UK.
Andrew Kinniburgh, director-general of Make UK Defence, told the Treasury Committee in June that a claim of about 80 per cent of contracts going to UK-based firms was “glib”. He said his organisation is working with the department to define a UK business, and asked whether intellectual property, patents and a UK supply chain should count alongside a registered address.
