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Defence Industrial Strategy

Lifecycle: Implementation Defence Committee · Department for Business and Trade · Ministry of Defence · Northern Ireland Affairs Committee · Public Accounts Committee · Scottish Affairs Committee Last regenerated 1 month, 4 weeks ago · 180 new events since

Summary

What this is

The Defence Industrial Strategy 2025 (DIS) is the defence sector plan of the UK's Modern Industrial Strategy, published by MOD on 8 September 2025 to make defence 'an engine for growth' through procurement reform, regional Defence Growth Deals, a £182m skills package, and strengthened export support. It sits beneath the Strategic Defence Review 2025 and is operationalised through the Defence Investment Plan (replacing the Equipment Plan), the Export Control Order 2008 regime, and the Refreshed National Shipbuilding Strategy.

Why it matters

DIS reframes defence procurement around domestic industrial capacity, SME participation (50% spend uplift target vs FY23/24) and regional growth, while the parallel rise to 2.5% GDP defence spend by 2027 (3% next Parliament) puts unprecedented capital flow through the industrial base. The credibility test now rests on the still-unpublished Defence Investment Plan and on whether export-control liberalisation (Lancaster House 2.0, the four-nation export agreement, SI 2025/1197) actually unlocks the export pipeline DIS promises.

Current status

DIS is in active implementation. Scotland (£50m, 12 March 2026) and Northern Ireland (£50m, 22 April 2026) Defence Growth Deals have launched; the Defence Investment Plan remains unpublished as of late April 2026, prompting a Defence Committee one-off evidence session and a sharply critical PAC report. The SME Action Plan is in draft, the Offset Policy consultation has closed, and SI 2025/1197 came into force on 16 December 2025.

What changed recently

  • 29 Apr 2026 — Lords PQs HL16616/HL16617 on Defence Investment Plan progress and Northern Ireland industrial capacity went unanswered before Prorogation — a notable scrutiny gap. →
  • 28 Apr 2026 — Commons oral question to Chief Secretary James Murray on effectiveness of the Defence Industrial Strategy (John Milne LD). →
  • 22 Apr 2026 — Northern Ireland Defence Growth Deal launched (£50m), the second of five regional deals funded from the £250m DIS allocation. →
  • 23 Apr 2026 — MOD Arm's Length Bodies reform WMS — DECA, Defence Innovation merger under UKDI, restructuring the delivery apparatus underneath DIS. →
  • 24 Mar 2026 — Defence Committee one-off oral evidence session on the impact of the delay to the Defence Investment Plan on industry. →

Key documents

Framework

Operationalising

Implementation

Scrutiny

Other

Consultations

Stakeholders

Grouped by role with evidence. Long groups scroll inside their column.

Sponsoring department 3

  • Ministry of Defence → src
    Lead department for DIS 2025, the Defence Investment Plan, SME Action Plan, Defence Growth Deals and the Defence Industry Skills Package.
  • Department for Business and Trade → src
    Joint sponsor as owner of the Modern Industrial Strategy umbrella; co-signed the September 2025 letter to the Defence Committee launching DIS.
  • Export Control Joint Unit (ECJU) → src
    Owns the Export Control Order 2008 regime amended by SI 2025/1197 — the export-licensing layer DIS leans on for exports.

Sponsoring minister 5

  • John Healey → src
    Secretary of State for Defence — issued the November 2025 'Factories of the future' WMS and the July 2025 Defence Reform WMS underpinning DIS delivery; status flag in facts pack is unknown so treated as historical.
  • Luke Pollard → src
    Minister of State for Defence Readiness and Industry — delivered the 8 September 2025 Commons statement launching DIS and the April 2026 ALB Reforms WMS.
  • Lord Coaker → src
    Minister of State at MOD (Lords) — laid 12 mirror Lords WMSs on DIS-adjacent matters including Defence Reform, the Defence Diplomacy Strategy and Defence Export Controls.
  • James Murray → src
    Chief Secretary to the Treasury — answered the 28 April 2026 Commons oral question on the effectiveness of DIS, anchoring fiscal credibility scrutiny.
  • Maria Eagle → src
    Minister for Defence Procurement and Industry under the previous configuration — answered the January 2025 SMEs oral question and launched the December 2024 DIS Statement of Intent.

Lead committee 4

  • Defence Committee → src
    Held the March 2026 one-off oral evidence session on impact of the Defence Investment Plan delay; published industrial-resilience and National Armaments Director recommendations (Nov 2025).
  • Public Accounts Committee → src
    Published 32nd Report — The Future of the Equipment Plan (June 2025) and a press notice 'PAC extremely disappointed at lack of public spending plan'; co-signed Jan 2025 joint letter with Defence Committee on Equipment Plan.
  • Scottish Affairs Committee → src
    Published Fifth Special Report on Defence in Scotland: military shipbuilding (April 2023); ongoing inquiry on Securing Scotland's Future: Defence Skills and Jobs.
  • Northern Ireland Affairs Committee → src
    Inquiry on Defence Spending in Northern Ireland (Feb 2024) feeding into the £50m NI Defence Growth Deal announced April 2026.

Witnesses & evidence-givers 2

  • National Audit Office → src
    Independent audit baseline — the December 2023 Equipment Plan report finding the Plan unaffordable with the largest deficit since 2012 frames the Defence Investment Plan credibility test.
  • National Armaments Director → src
    Post created under Defence Reform (April 2025); Defence Committee has recommended he give evidence to Parliament as the key implementation post for SDR and DIS.

Regulator / delivery programme 2

  • UK Defence Innovation (UKDI) → src
    Consolidated defence innovation organisation formed July 2025 from DASA, DIU and DE&S FCI — a core DIS delivery vehicle.
  • Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S) → src
    Procurement arm executing the contracts (1,398 major contracts since July 2024 per PQ 129310) that DIS reform is intended to redesign.

Commentator 11

  • Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi → src
    Labour, Slough — Defence Committee Chair; tabled PQ 117847 (March 2026) probing departmental engagement with the SDR's national conversation on defence and security.
  • John Milne → src
    Liberal Democrat, Horsham — asked Treasury (28 April 2026) about effectiveness of DIS, the most recent ministerial-level scrutiny chip.
  • Lord Forbes of Newcastle → src
    Crossbench — tabled the March 2026 Lords oral question on potential impact of DIS 2025 on economic growth and job creation in English regions.
  • Alice Macdonald → src
    Labour/Co-op, Norwich North — tabled the February 2026 Commons oral question on potential impact of DIS 2025 on Northern Ireland.
  • Kevin Bonavia → src
    Labour, Stevenage — repeatedly asked oral questions in October 2025 and February 2026 on the regional impact of DIS, especially in Northern Ireland.
  • Alan Strickland → src
    Labour, Newton Aycliffe and Spennymoor — tabled the January 2025 oral question on DIS support for defence-sector SMEs that opened the SME-spend track.
  • Sir Julian Lewis → src
    Conservative, New Forest East — former Defence Committee Chair; intervened in the 8 September 2025 launch debate and the 2021 DSIS debate, providing institutional continuity in scrutiny.
  • Philip Dunne → src
    Conservative, Ludlow — pressed the original July 2020 oral question on developing a defence industrial strategy that opened this thread, and re-engaged in the 2021 DSIS debate.
  • Lord Beamish → src
    Labour peer; spoke in the September 2025 DIS Lords statement and the March 2021 DSIS debate — continuity backbench scrutiny voice.
  • Baroness Goldie → src
    Conservative peer; former MOD Lords minister — spoke in the September 2025 DIS Lords statement and the March 2021 DSIS debate.
  • Lord Bilimoria → src
    Crossbench peer with business background — spoke in the September 2025 DIS Lords statement and the 2021 DSIS debate; engages on industrial-base and exports angle.

Other 2

  • Jeremy Quin → src
    Former Minister for Defence Procurement (Conservative) — delivered the original 23 March 2021 DSIS oral statement establishing the predecessor regime.
  • Ben Wallace → src
    Former Secretary of State for Defence — issued the 2020 DSIS review statement and the 2022 NSS Refresh statements that frame the current regime's industrial pillar.

Political commitments

What parties and ministers have promised — manifesto pledges, King's Speech announcements, ministerial statements. Each card shows what was said, by whom, and when, with a link to the original source.

  • commitment Ministerial statement Labour · 2024 · Defence Industrial Development

    Develop a new Defence Industrial Strategy by late spring 2025

    Today I am announcing plans to develop a new Defence Industrial Strategy that will be published in late spring 2025.

    Why linked: John Healey's 2 December 2024 WMS (HCWS273) committing to DIS publication.

    Source: Defence Industrial Development · Original ↗
  • commitment Ministerial statement Labour · 2025 · The Strategic Defence Review 2025 - Making Britain Safer: secure at home, stron…

    Defence spending to 2.5% GDP by 2027, 3% next Parliament when conditions allow

    increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027 and 3% in the next Parliament when fiscal and economic conditions allow

    Why linked: Foreword to SDR 2025, the strategic predicate underwriting DIS.

    Source: The Strategic Defence Review 2025 - Making Britain Safer: secure at home, strong abroad · Original ↗
  • commitment Ministerial statement Labour · 2025 · To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what progress has been made on alloc…

    £182m Defence Industry Skills Package plus £250m for five Defence Growth Deals

    The Defence Industrial Strategy committed £250 million to fund all five Defence Growth Deals across the UK, and announced an £182 million Defence Industry Skills Package.

    Why linked: Repeated MOD answer to PQs 122217 and 122218.

    Source: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what progress has been made on allocating a sh… · Original ↗
  • commitment Ministerial statement Labour · 2026 · To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether his Department has an agreed…

    Increase direct and indirect SME spending by 50% vs FY23/24 (≈£2.5bn uplift)

    The Ministry of Defence has set an ambitious target to increase direct and indirect spending by 50% compared to FY 23/24 baseline.

    Why linked: Answer to PQ 129308 on agreed target SME spend.

    Source: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether his Department has an agreed target sp… · Original ↗

Open questions & gaps

Known gaps in the evidence base and what's still pending.

Pending in the lifecycle

  • Publication of the Defence Investment Plan (replacing the Equipment Plan) — unpublished as of April 2026, subject of Defence Committee one-off session and PAC criticism.
  • Publication of the full annual SME Action Plan with direct spending target — PQ 127437 confirms it will not be published before Prorogation.
  • Update to the National Shipbuilding Strategy — PQ 129666 confirms it is pending.
  • Three further Defence Growth Deals (England regional allocations) within the £250m envelope — only Scotland (£50m, March 2026) and Northern Ireland (£50m, April 2026) launched.
  • Government response to the DIS Offset Written Consultation (closed 23 December 2025).

Beyond the corpus

  • MISSING An updated NAO report on the Defence Investment Plan equivalent of the Dec 2023 Equipment Plan study — NAO has historically audited the Equipment Plan annually; the successor instrument has not yet had an equivalent independent audit.
  • MISSING Public oral evidence by the National Armaments Director to the Defence Committee — Defence Committee recommended he give evidence as the key DIS implementation post.
  • MISSING Scrutiny report on the affordability of the announced 2.5% / 3% defence spending uplift in light of Spending Review — Trajectory has been announced but external Treasury / OBR validation is not yet in the public corpus.

Confidence gaps

  • Live status of named ministers — the facts pack treats all WMS-issuing ministers as 'CURRENT STATUS UNKNOWN'; treat all minister-level references as historical absent independent confirmation.
  • Whether the £182m Skills Package and £250m Growth Deals are funded from baseline MOD budget or from the SR uplift — corpus does not disambiguate.
  • Whether SI 2025/1197's Armenia/Azerbaijan embargo lift was driven by DIS export pillar or by broader FCDO strategy — corpus is silent on the proximate cause.