Scottish Affairs Committee

Lord Robertson argued that the Strategic Defence Review is primarily about rebuilding war readiness and deterrence, but that its implementation should also drive growth through Scotland’s defence industrial base. He repeatedly pressed for faster delivery of the defence investment plan, warning that Treasury delay, weak procurement, and skills bottlenecks are undermining industry certainty. He also highlighted undersea-cable vulnerability, critical national infrastructure risks, the need for a whole-of-nation resilience model, and the importance of private capital, training and logistics in turning spending into capability.

The Scottish Affairs Committee examined fixed-link connectivity for island communities (Western Isles, Orkney, Shetland) and heard from local authority leaders and a technical consultancy. Key themes: weather-reliant ferry networks hindering key industries (fishing, aquaculture, spaceport); potential fixed links (tunnels/bridges) as long-term assets with up-front costs but multi-decade benefits; need for government certainty, cross-government collaboration, and funding pathways (UK/Scottish Governments, levelling-up funds, EU-era funding parallels). Witnesses pressed for long-term strategic support, including in-kind backing, and highlighted the social and cultural importance of keeping island communities connected. No formal government commitment was articulated in the session, but several witnesses called for explicit political backing and funding to enable deliverability.

This session examined how Scotland can secure defence-related skills and jobs, focusing on regional distribution of work, supply chains, and the long-term pipeline of talent. Witnesses from Leonardo, BAE Systems, Babcock, and QinetiQ highlighted Scotland’s role as a major defence industry hub (notably across the Clyde and Scotland-wide sites), the need for a stable, long-term procurement and investment framework, and the importance of expanding apprenticeships, research and development, and cross-sector skills credentials. Key government-facing elements included calls for clearer Defence Investment Plan commitments, alignment between UK industrial strategy and defence procurement, and the Defence Growth Deal funding. Witnesses argued for more programmatic, long-term contracts to enable sustained training pipelines, greater SME participation, and the expansion of the defence skills passport (including cross-sector mobility with other energy/engineering sectors). They also stressed the need to improve public perception of defence as a high-technology, national-security-enabled industry, and called for infrastructure and regional measures to attract and retain talent in remote Scotland. The government-facing signal is a stated intention to fund defence growth in Scotland (e.g., £50 million for the Scottish defence growth deal), but witnesses urged faster, clearer commitments and better alignment across UK and Scottish funding levers to deliver long-term capability and regional economic impact.

The Scottish Affairs Committee’s final session on GB Energy and the net-zero transition scrutinised government plans to shield bill-payers from volatile energy costs, North Sea policy, grid investment, and the role and funding of public ownership through Great British Energy (GB Energy). Key government commitments and positions included: no new North Sea exploration licences, but openness to tie-backs to existing fields; a long-term strategy to delink gas prices from electricity prices through a faster roll-out of renewables and a reform of the merit-order market; an urgent emphasis on accelerating grid upgrades and the strategic “grid-first” approach to reduce constraint payments; the launch of the North Sea Future Plan and North Sea Jobs Service to retrain and place workers; GB Energy’s public-ownership model with a £1 billion supply-chain fund to unlock domestic industry benefits; a merit-based approach to allocating GB Energy funding across the UK rather than by population share; legislative action to define community energy groups to unlock 8 GW by 2030; a pilot scheme for consumer bill discounts targeting high-constraint areas; and ongoing engagement with Ofgem on transmission charging volatility. The session also highlighted Sara the need for re-building broad political consensus around renewables and energy security, and ongoing Scotland–UK collaboration on the energy transition.

The session scrutinised Scotland’s digital connectivity resilience, focusing on island communities, subsea-cable outages, and how industry, regulators, and government policy interact. Witnesses from VodafoneThree (George Robinson), TalkTalk (Neil Smith), Sky (Emily Davidson), and the Digital Connectivity Forum (Alex Mather) outlined wholesale/mobile models reliant on Openreach/CityFibre, ongoing resilience enhancements (including R100-funded work and new subsea links to Orkney/Shetland), and substantial investment commitments (£11bn by VodafoneThree). They stressed Ofcom guidance is outcomes-based but should avoid blanket/mandatory requirements that could deter investment, urged tailored resilience for remote geographies, discussed compensation under Ofcom auto-compensation, and highlighted cross-sector collaboration (energy/telecoms) to improve resilience. The committee pressed for clarity on contractual resilience obligations, the pace of Openreach’s upgrades (targeting summer 2026), and the role of satellite/back-up options as part of a broader resilience mix.

The session scrutinised the role of Scotland’s colleges and universities in building defence-related skills, identified gaps and rising demand for digital/STEM capabilities, and examined funding and delivery challenges for apprenticeships. It also explored strategic instruments such as the Defence Growth Deal, Defence Technology Excellence Colleges (DTEC), and the Defence Universities Alliance, alongside cross-government coordination between UK and Scottish administrations. Key policy signals included: plans for hub-and-spoke DTEC delivery across Scotland; the potential for increased, well-coordinated investment in colleges and universities; emphasis on early STEM engagement and mid-career upskilling; and the need to streamline funding and communications to promote defence careers and broaden participation while ensuring workforce supply meets industry demand.