Defence strategy will create opportunities for Prospect members claims Minister
The government’s new Defence and Security Industrial Strategy will create opportunities for Prospect members working the in the defence sector, the Defence Procurement Minister has said.
Jeremy Quin was speaking at the launch of Prospect’s Defence Industry Group on 25th May, and praised members for helping to “deliver for the country” in their work, and especially during the pandemic.
The Minister set out the government’s thinking on the new defence strategy, arguing that the UK has a “world class defence workforce” and that creating more prosperity in the UK through defence contracts was more of a focus than it had been.
In particular he argued that the government had understood the need to reverse cuts in R&D spending and to invest in skills in order to boost the defence industry in the coming years.
Mr Quin explained the move to abandon the ‘competition by default’ approach to defence procurement, and give a higher precedence to ‘social value’ in the procurement process. He said he hoped for a “renaissance of shipbuilding” in the UK, with the government helping to provide a “steady pipeline of procurement”.
The Minister welcomed Prospect’s constructive approach to the government’s strategy, including a new report which set out the union’s thinking on next steps to ensure that defence workers feel the benefit of extra investment.
He also said that he thought unions had an important role to play in delivering the strategy, for example on issues such as skills and productivity.
Prospect’s response to the government’s defence strategy can be read here.
The video for the Minister’s speech and the launch of the Defence Industry Group can be found here.
