About this paper

This GovConnex Industry Spotlight focuses on the United Kingdom’s defence industry, aiming to inform industry leaders and their government relations and compliance teams about key political, policy and regulatory challenges in 2025 for the sector.

We provide an overview of the industry’s size, economic impact and key government stakeholders, an outline of the current regulatory landscape, identify key risks and opportunities for the defence industry, and suggest some government relations and compliance strategies using GovConnex’s market-leading tools.

Key findings

The UK defence industry is a significant sector on both the global stage (through exports and enabling British military power) and in the British economy, employing 164,000 people and contributing £12 billion to the economy.

Important regulatory and policy developments include:

• A new government procurement regime comes into effect under the Procurement Act and updated Single Source Contract Regulations, while the government will release a new National Procurement Policy Statement.
• The government will release its much anticipated Strategic Defence Review in the first half of 2025 which will set out the UK’s response to a deteriorating security environment, including through new capabilities, a better approach to acquisition, and growth in the defence industrial base.
• Accompanying the Strategic Defence Review will be a Defence Industrial Strategy that also builds on the government’s broader industrial policy, Invest 2035. The Defence Industrial Strategy will include priorities around prioritising UK businesses, improving public-private research collaboration, increasing the pace of procurement, and using defence spending to generate wealth and jobs across the UK.

Download GovConnex's full GCX Spotlight: UK Defence Industry paper to read more.