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Defence Procurement

I think we might have learnt our lesson: the Belgians would never really come to our rescue. Security of supply is not protectionism, although of course protectionism exists. It is important to national security—and yes, jobs are important. Defence procurement, and Government procurement, are not a fantasy or dream of the capitalist world, because there is not a level playing field in most countries. As overseas director at QinetiQ, I regularly came up against other European or United States defence contractors. I can tell the House that the British defence market is the most open, probably the most transparent and probably the fairest in the world—and we do not get much thanks for that from our competitors. If we let it all go, we will have very little security of supply and very little ability to develop our own way of thinking. People say that we will all be allies together. Will we? We have already diverged from a number of our European allies, in the most recent Iraq war. We should not forget that countries such as China and Iran that could become our rivals—I think that a more civilised term than ““enemies””—are procuring and spending as if there were no tomorrow. We must always anticipate whatever threats are around the corner. The reason why we can produce the UOR—urgent operations requirement—equipment that saves British lives every day is the skill base that we have here, at home. When people say that it was possible to protect the Warrior from the RPG29 or from some other threat, it generally turns out that it was done by means of a telephone call to some of our engineers in what is often little more than a shed. In the greatest British tradition, the engineers came up with the ideas and the equipment was on the front line within days or weeks. That capability is something that we should not give away. I want to record my appreciation of what Lord Drayson has done. I believe that, as a procurement Minister, he has done an awful lot of good in putting Ministry of Defence procurement on the right track. However, I feel that there have been a few weaknesses in today's debate. I was disappointed by the Minister's opening speech. There are many big questions to be answered about the joint strike fighter, the third tranche of Typhoon and the update of the air tanker: where is it? There is also the question of the Defence Export Services Organisation, which my hon. Friend the Member for Newbury (Mr. Benyon) rightly raised. I used DESO in my business. It was excellent, and if we lose that expertise, British defence industry—small or big—will be the worse for it. If anyone wants to know the difference between DESO and the DTI, let me explain that in my sector we used to call the DTI ““Deter Trade International””. Its ability to secure straight answers, quick decisions and a knowledge of the market was as far removed from that of DESO as chalk is from cheese. I was amazed that the Minister did not mention the defence trade co-operation treaty. That treaty, between the United Kingdom and the United States, was laid before the House two weeks ago yesterday, and is incredibly important to the United Kingdom defence industry and the United Kingdom and United States armed forces. It is about our sharing with our closest ally technologies that save our soldiers' lives every day. That treaty is sitting on the table, but it has not been mentioned. A week and a half ago, I was in Washington to speak to senators and ensure that American protectionism did not block the treaty. My hon. Friend the Member for Harwich has talked of public accountability for defence procurement—and if he wants to see how that can go badly wrong, I suggest that he take a trip to Congress and see how pork-barrel politics often destroys a cohesive defence doctrine in the Pentagon. It is an important lesson. We as politicians and the Ministry of Defence can take long-term defence procurement decisions in the national interest without being too hamstrung by elections every other year.