Dan Jarvis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-03-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how the UK economy has benefited from defence technology research and development.

Mr Philip Dunne

As stated in National Security Strategy and Strategic Defence and Security Review 2015 (Cmd 9161), the UK conducts world-class innovation across all the major commercial technology sectors with national security applications, including aerospace, biotechnology and medical sciences, big data, cyber security, satellites, robotics and advanced materials.

The defence and security industries make a major contribution to our prosperity. In the UK they employ over 215,000 people, predominantly highly skilled, and support a further 150,000, as well as 6,500 apprentices. In 2014, both industries had a collective turnover of over £30 billion, including defence and security export orders worth £11.9 billion.