Select committee: Defence Committee
Recommendation 4
Eleventh Report - UK Defence and the Indo-Pacific
Published 24 Oct 2023
Paragraph 58
Addressed to Ministry of Defence
Defence Committee UK Defence and the Indo-Pacific All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
We welcome the announcement of the SSN-AUKUS class submarine, including the increased port visits and the Rotational Force, in maintaining a coherent regional presence. The UK must, however, be realistic and cognisant of the significant hurdles for all AUKUS partners in constructing nuclear-powered submarines. A fundamental challenge is the continuing lack of clarity about how many submarines 40 UK Defence and the Indo-Pacific will ultimately be built, the cost, and the availability of a skilled workforce. We call on the Government to set out in its response to this Report the anticipated timescale for producing a detailed plan on: how much it expects SSN-AUKUS to cost, how it will address the skills shortage, and how many SSN-AUKUS class it will produce. It should also set out any existing plans so far as they exist.
From: Defence Committee, Eleventh Report - UK Defence and the Indo-Pacific (HC 183), paragraph 58, 24 October 2023
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 11 January 2024.
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The Government states that it has achieved the ambition set for Defence in the 2021 Integrated Review and challenges the Committee's recommendation for a published Indo-Pacific strategy, while agreeing with or noting other recommendations.
- On China, the Government "disagrees that there is a need to carry out an assessment of how to label China", saying that summing it up in one word would be "impossible, impractical and unwise". It will provide a private briefing on Defence's crisis planning process.
- On AUKUS, it "partially rejects" the request for a plan on costs and submarine numbers, saying decisions on numbers and the build contract "will be made in due course". It notes the recommendation on skills and points to a Nuclear Skills Taskforce announced on 1 August 2023.
- It agrees with the recommendations on India and on ASEAN and the Pacific Islands, and supports not seeking Quad membership "at this time". It states it has "committed to the return of the UK Carrier Strike Group to the Indo-Pacific in 2025".
- On the Committee's rejection that the tilt has been achieved, the Government "notes the Committee's criticism" and states that "Defence has met the ambitions set out in the Integrated Review 2021".