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Defence Industrial Strategy

I am grateful to the Secretary of State for giving me advance notice of this document and I agree with him that it is very important. My Committee will examine it very closely at the beginning of the new year. Does he agree that the key issue is how we put this document into practice? We need action, rather than words. Does he further agree that, despite the strategy’s welcome clarity in some areas, on one of the most important—research and technology—it leaves rather a lot unsaid? For example, it states:"““We must develop new ways of working together . . . We need to examine how R and T might better support our acquisition process.””" Can the Secretary of State reassure me that this is not simply a case of pushing the most difficult questions off into the future? That is a very important issue.