Overview

• In his first major address as Minister for Defence Readiness and Industry, Luke Pollard said the Ministry of Defence and industry are too slow and set a goal to cut procurement cycles from five years to two, and from two years to one.
• He argued the UK is no longer in a peacetime environment and called for a rethink of risk to deliver greater speed and readiness.
• Pollard linked his brief to government spending plans, citing targets of 2.5% of GDP by April 2027 with ambitions rising to 3% in the next parliament and 3.5% as part of a 5% NATO security pledge by 2035.
• He highlighted the newly published Defence Industrial Strategy, which allocates £773 million to make the UK a stronger place to start and grow defence businesses.
• He announced the removal of 100 outdated medical requirements that had blocked Armed Forces recruitment and invited industry to flag other obstructive rules.