The UK defence industry is struggling to meet increased production demands due to shortages in skilled workers, key materials, and lengthy security clearance processes, according to industry leaders giving evidence to the Defence Select Committee.
The session on 4 March 2025, part of the Committee’s inquiry into the UK’s contribution to European security, heard concerns over the pace of industrial mobilisation amid rising global tensions and increased defence spending commitments.
Julian David, CEO of techUK, told MPs that the Ministry of Defence (MOD) and broader UK defence sector are failing to address the growing need for digital skills, which are essential for modern warfare.
“Digital skills are increasingly going to be a huge part of any defence deployment or defence capability that we have. That is really not being addressed in the current MoD and broader British defence forces environment,” he warned.
David emphasised that defence careers need to be made more attractive, particularly in technology sectors such as communications, battlefield logistics, and space capabilities.
Andrew Kinniburgh, Director General of Make UK Defence, reinforced the concern, stating that the UK defence sector is in a long-term skills crisis, with fewer young people pursuing defence-related apprenticeships.
“Every member survey we have done for the last 10 years shows skills shortages as the top issue,” he said.
Kinniburgh highlighted that apprenticeship funding structures are inadequate, making it difficult for companies to invest in future talent.
“It costs us £35,000 to train one apprentice, but the apprentice levy only allows us to recover £27,000. We lose money on every single apprentice.”
Material Supply Chain and Industrial Resilience Challenges
MPs also questioned witnesses on the availability of critical raw materials needed for rapid expansion in defence manufacturing.
Julian David pointed out that key electronic components, particularly semiconductors, remain a major vulnerability.
“We all remember when car manufacturers had to stop production because they couldn’t get chips. The same issue applies to defence—we need to ensure a stable and secure supply,” he said.
He warned that the concentration of semiconductor production in Asia—particularly near China—poses a serious strategic risk.
Andrew Kinniburgh noted that while raw material shortages have eased since the post-COVID disruption, supply remains fragile. He criticised the MOD’s failure to prioritise British-made materials, particularly UK-produced steel.
“The Defence Infrastructure Organisation, which builds facilities for the MOD, has no policy to buy UK steel. It just spot-buys on the open market, which is a huge risk to resilience,” he argued.
Security Clearance Delays Hindering Defence Innovation
Another major issue raised was the slow and fragmented security clearance system, which prevents SMEs and new suppliers from quickly contributing to defence projects.
Julian David criticised the lack of a unified clearance system across government agencies, noting that companies have to apply separately for MOD, Home Office, and Foreign Office clearances, delaying innovation and procurement.
“If you are not already engaged with us, we don’t have a way to give you a fast path to security clearance,” he said.
Kevin Craven, Chief Executive of ADS, warned that clearance delays were a serious obstacle to increasing defence production capacity.
“To increase the workforce by 10% probably requires a minimum of two or three years,” he said.
Craven revealed that his organisation had to step in to manage clearances directly, making it the fifth largest private supplier of security clearances to the MOD.
“We’ve gone from managing roughly 200 or 300 security clearances a year to over 7,000 now, taking some of the process work away from the MOD.”
MPs Push for Faster Action
The Defence Select Committee pressed industry leaders on whether the government was moving quickly enough to address these issues.
Derek Twigg MP asked how long it would take to expand the workforce and increase production, highlighting the government’s recent pledge to triple missile production in Belfast.
Kevin Craven responded that the expansion would likely require additional factory shifts rather than an immediate scaling up of infrastructure.
“Tripling missile production will require extra shifts at the Belfast site, but expanding capacity further will take longer,” he explained.
Twigg also pressed witnesses on whether security clearance delays were a minor issue or a major problem.
Craven’s response was blunt:
“The length of time to get one is a serious problem.”
Hopefully the new labour government plan to dumb down academy schools will be scrapped. I liked those STEM Academies linked to blue chip UK engineering firms. We need more of them.
Which ever way one views what is before us, getting out of this precarious situation in national defence gets more problematic by the day. The delusory ‘peace dividend’, selling off or closing down strategic national industrial capacity, an education system in unmanaged decline and our native cultures pilloried nightly on national broadcasting. Now our ‘Special Relationship’ gets a quicky divorce no one saw coming and we are on the street with nowhere to go. Does anyone have a cunning plan to share?
I have a cunning plan…. call me baldrick……
Companies saying that they are losing money on every apprentice, was it not ever thus?
Company takes a hit on the training of new staff with hope that once up to speed then that colleague makes them a profit in future years.
Uk industry has been relying too much on ready trained staff from abroad. Business needs to invest in its people.
In my experience of smaller business’s, an apprentice was like a sponge… you saturate it with all the knowledge, It absorbs all the training, then leaves after learning enough to open up just down the road. Either way you get cleaned out.
We used to run a massive training scheme.
Mostly for the benefit of our competitors.
Because we were investing in training we couldn’t match wages. So we stopped training to hoover the workers up.
Very sad but there is loyalty.
* Very sad but there is *no* loyalty.
I remember Thatcher scrapping the Industrial Training Boards which levied each industrial sector which then used the proceeds to subsidise apprentices on the pretext that Industry would naturally do it for themselves. British short term thinking and longer term strategy never made good bedfellows. That said, successive governments have had 40 years to correct this situation and haven’t. Now in the face of overwhelming certainty perhaps it will be corrected. Sadly it’s the British way.
Clearances not surprising, they had already eked out routine re-vetting to save money.