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Defence Industrial Strategy

I am sure that the Secretary of State’s judgment in putting his trust in respect of our chemical and biological defence into the hands of the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory at Porton Down in my constituency is entirely correct. He gave an assurance about the testing and evaluation work carried out by QinetiQ at Boscombe Down, also in my constituency, but said that he wants the European Defence Agency to consider whether we should amalgamate and rationalise some of that work across Europe. However, what about the intellectual property rights that we share with our American allies? What will their reaction be if they know that we are working with European companies, some of which are sited in a nation that is not even a full NATO member?