National Shipbuilding Strategy

My Lords, the Government are working hard to deliver for the UK shipbuilding sector. Since 2024, 1,000 jobs have been saved at Harland & Wolff’s yards in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, a £10 billion frigate deal was agreed with Norway—the largest of its kind in UK history—and millions have been invested in critical infrastructure, all delivered through close collaboration between government and industry. The National Shipbuilding Office plans to publish a new shipbuilding and maritime technology action plan this year, going beyond the national shipbuilding strategy to set out our bold vision for the sector and to maximise its high-growth potential.

Sir John Parker produced his report on national shipbuilding policy in 2017. It was adapted by the then Government, reviewed in 2022 and adopted by the incoming Labour Government. The Minister’s own department has made some progress towards ensuring that there is a throughput of work in UK shipyards. What more can be done to ensure that departments such as the Department for Transport, which is currently looking at providing ships for Trinity House to be put abroad, and the Home Office, which is considering putting its Border Force cutters abroad, do not use only shipyards subsidised by the national Governments in those countries that farm out subcontracted work to the Far East?

As always, the points that my noble friend raises on these matters are incredibly important. He will know, from his vast experience and the work he does, that we must have cultural change to rebuild the British shipbuilding industry and re-establish the sovereign capability. He will know from the region he represented with distinction for many years in Parliament, and now as a Member of this House still living in that area, the importance of the north-east for shipbuilding. We must have a situation in which buying British is first choice and our shipyards are first preference for the building of our ships, including for our Navy. My noble friend also makes the point that we need other departments to consider that as fully as they can.

My Lords, the Minister will be aware of the central role that Harland & Wolff is intended to play in delivering the national shipping strategy, supported by significant investment from Navantia UK, which will create many hundreds of new highly skilled, well-paid jobs in Belfast. What support if any can His Majesty’s Government provide to ensure that the Northern Ireland skills base is ready to supply enough properly qualified workers to fill these vital roles?

The noble Lord will know as well as I do that if you went to Belfast a few years ago, as I did many times, you saw a derelict shipyard with nothing there. Now, you see investment going into Harland & Wolff and orders being placed there for the building of ships. It is a great credit to the people of Northern Ireland and the people of Belfast that this is happening. The Government are investing in shipbuilding. On skills, which the noble Lord mentioned, he will know that Northern Ireland was given a growth deal, which can be used for skills. He will also know that just a couple of days ago, Queen’s University Belfast became part of the Defence Universities Alliance, which will also help with that. The blunt reality is that we need to invest money in our shipyards across the UK. We are doing that in Belfast, as well as other areas in the country.

My Lords, we have more ships tied up than at sea. That was witnessed by the lack of a ship in the Med at the start of this recent conflict and the delay in mobilising HMS “Dragon”. Where is the urgency in covering that gap? Also, with no replacement for our destroyers, how are we going to protect ourselves against the growing threat of ballistic missiles?

One of the things we are doing was announced yesterday by my colleague from the other place in Faslane: £26 billion of investment over the next 10 years into naval bases across the whole UK, so that we can improve the availability of our ships. We also need investment in our shipyards, which is taking place. That is one of the ways we are seeking to do this. We will improve availability, but it will take some time. On the Type 45 destroyers and their replacement, we are looking to the Navy of the future, which will have air defence and ways of dealing with the threats we face—but in a different way from simply replacing our existing warships.

My Lords, Sir John Parker’s core message was absolutely clear: the British shipyards need a steady drum beat of orders, and the MoD must give a direction of travel. Shipbuilding now faces a yawning uncertainty, exacerbated by the defence investment plan. As has been mentioned, the Type 83 destroyers and the Type 32 frigates have been cancelled, leaving us susceptible to ballistic missile attack, and the Type 26 frigates currently under construction in Glasgow are being delayed. Now, all we have for the future is this vague concept of a common combat vessel, as yet undesigned, with no timelines at all. Why have the Government rejected the core proposition of the national shipbuilding strategy?

We have not rejected the core conclusions of that report. The noble Earl is absolutely right that we need investment, and the Government have announced huge amounts of it. I cannot read them all out, but on pages 35 and 36 he will see sums of money, labelled against numerous types of ship, that will be invested in the shipyards. He is quite right that we need a steady drum beat of orders. As a proud Scotsman—with his Scottish noble friend, the noble Baroness, Lady Goldie, sitting behind him—he will no doubt be as pleased as I am that 13 ships are to be built on the Clyde over the next few years. He will also know that only yesterday we announced with the Netherlands eight amphibious transport ships, all to be built in the UK. It is not a bad start.

My Lords, for too long we have had feast and famine within our warship shipbuilding industry. Part of the reason for the dreadful situation we are in today is that orders took too long to make and there was no drum beat. We will very shortly have four frigates—the great Royal Navy will have four frigates. It is almost unbelievable to say it. That is because we have not had a drum beat. Even now, looking to the future, with the 26s and the 31s, the Government have to commit to saying that they will build and drum-beat thereafter. If you want 25 hulls, we all know that with a 25-year life you need one ship being built every year. If you want 30, which the Government have said they want, you need 1.3 being built every year. That is not happening, and we will not be getting the first of the new ships for another three years. It is extremely worrying. We must commit to a steady drum beat of orders that lets industry spend money, builds up the shipyards and gets the SMEs going. Then we can get back to having a Navy that can really do what it needs to do.

I agree with the points that my noble friend makes. As I said in answer to the noble Earl, Lord Minto, that is what we are doing. We are steadily improving the drum beat that my noble friend talks about. We also need to ensure that we have the Navy that we need in the future. It will be a different type of Navy. Of course we will need warships and platforms; that is the point about the common combat vessel. Of course we will need such vessels, but they will launch from them uncrewed vessels above, on the surface of and below the water. When they are integrated on the digital platforms that we will have, they will give us huge capability to defend ourselves, our allies and our partners across the world.

My Lords, I was born and brought up very close to the River Tyne, and my family did well from the shipping that went on there. As I grew up, the shipyards were closing. We do not have the capacity in this country that we used to, but we have engineers, maritime designers and electricians, all those who understand the designs that are necessary for maritime security. Does the Minister agree that even if we cannot physically build the ships, we have talents and abilities here that can be sold throughout the world to develop the maritime industry?

I agree with the point about the brilliance of our engineers and technicians and our ability to build ships. It would be great to see them supporting shipyards around the world and the building of ships, but I think this House wants to see the re-establishment of our own sovereign capability and that of our own shipyards around the UK to build the ships that we need. That is what the Government are seeking to do, whether in the north-east, Scotland, Wales or England. Only yesterday I met a shipbuilder who is chief executive of a company that is starting to build ships on the Isle of Wight, OCEA. That is the sort of small or medium-sized business that we need to support alongside the big prime contractors. The intention of this Government is to re-establish the UK shipbuilding industry. I think that is an endeavour we can all get behind.