National Shipbuilding Strategy — House of Lords, 2017-09-06
Topic: Defense
Annabel Goldie (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, with the leave of the House I shall now repeat a Statement made in the other place by my right honourable friend Sir Michael Fallon, the Secretary of State for Defence, on the national shipbuilding strategy. The Statement is as follows: "This Government are committed to a strong Royal Navy and a strong economy that benefits every part of the UK. Today, I am publishing the national shipbuilding strategy—the means by which we plan to bring these two strategic goals together. Copies have been placed in the Library of the House and on the government website GOV.UK. The strategy will transform the procurement of naval ships, enable the fleet to grow by the 2030s, energise the UK’s maritime industry and increase skills, exports and prosperity across our country In the 2015 strategic defence and security review, we committed to developing a national shipbuilding strategy because we acknowledged that previous procurement of surface ships had been problematic. Sir John Parker, a well-respected expert in the sector, was appointed to produce an independent report to inform the strategy. This report was published in full on 29 November 2016. Sir John analysed where previous approaches had fallen short, and identified a renaissance in UK shipbuilding. He made 34 recommendations in total. I am pleased to report that we have accepted all of Sir John’s recommendations for government and have either implemented them already or have a plan of action to do so. I would like to place on record once again my thanks to Sir John for supporting us The strategy focuses on surface ships and makes clear this Government’s commitment to an ambitious programme of investment in a growing Navy. In the post-Brexit world, the need for us to project our influence and to keep reaching out to friends and allies alike will be more important than ever. That is why we propose now to invest billions in the Royal Navy over the coming decade. Our future fleet will include: our two mighty flagships, the "Queen Elizabeth" aircraft carriers; next-generation "Dreadnought" submarines; Type 45 destroyers; and a phalanx of new frigates including not just Type 26 global combat ships but a flexible and adaptable general-purpose light frigate, the Type 31e, as well of course as our "Astute" submarines and five new offshore vessels I am pleased to announce in the House today that this Government plan to procure the new Type 31e frigates. We will order a first batch of five such vessels. The first of these is to be in service by 2023. The Type 31e will enable us to refocus offshore patrol vessels and other craft on their core patrol and protection roles, while the Type 31e ships will maintain and project the presence we require to deliver security in an uncertain world. This then will allow the high-end capabilities of the Type 26 frigates and Type 45 destroyers to focus on maritime task group operations, particularly carrier strike, as well as the protection of the nuclear deterrent. Type 31e, as its name implies, will also be designed from the start as an exportable vessel, meeting global needs for a flexible and adaptable light frigate. We will test the concept of distributed block build during the procurement competition This procurement will be the first demonstration of our new strategy in practice. The new frigate will be procured competitively, providing an opportunity for shipyards across the UK to bid for this programme of work. The strategy confirms, in the clearest statement of this policy for a decade, that all warships will have a UK-owned design and will be built and integrated inside the UK. Warship build will be by competition between UK shipyards. We will encourage UK yards to work with global partners, where they meet our national security requirements, to ensure that the vessel is fully competitive on the export market. We also encourage UK yards to participate in the ongoing fleet solid support ship acquisition programme. These several programmes will secure hundreds of highly skilled and well-paid jobs on the Clyde and throughout the United Kingdom, bringing opportunities for high-wage and high-skill employment, growth and prosperity. Our research indicates that the maritime industries in the UK employ around 111,000 people, in 6,800 companies, contributing £13 billion to the economy. The shipbuilding and repair element of this contributes around £2 billion This is a strategy for industry as much as for government. Delivering these new ships means that we need a strong shipbuilding sector, as part of a wider marine engineering sector. That includes the shipyards, their suppliers and those that manufacture and support the equipment for the ships, and the skilled workers who support these companies. Industry and the trade unions were involved as we developed the strategy, and I would like to thank them too for their contribution This programme of investment represents further opportunities for the sector to compete for and win work for the Royal Navy, and for overseas customers—enabling in turn further investment, greater productivity and growth The strategy makes clear how the Government now intend to work with the marine engineering sector to support and enable its growth. In turn, we expect industry to raise productivity and innovation and improve its competitiveness in the domestic and overseas markets, which will insulate shipyards from the peaks and troughs of Royal Navy business and bring more sustained growth and prosperity to the regions where those businesses are based The strategy also makes clear how defence will grip and drive pace into ship procurement. The department has already implemented a new governance structure that ensures early and senior oversight of ship procurement programmes. Additional expert external support will be provided to Navy Command and the Type 31e project team to ensure that they can execute their responsibilities at speed. There will also be a new structure to oversee delivery of Type 31e and Type 26, building on the lessons learned from the carrier programme We will reap the benefits of these changes as we build and support a modern Royal Navy that will grow in size by the 2030s. We are committed to meeting the undertakings set out in the strategy. Delivering its ambitious vision will require a joint effort between the Government and industry. I commend this Statement to the House".