Scottish Government funding of £10 million is needed to guarantee two planned specialist colleges teaching the skills needed by workers in the defence sector can go ahead, MPs have been told.
Defence readiness minister Luke Pollard said while he wanted to see two of the defence technical excellence colleges (DTECs) established in Scotland, Ministry of Defence (MoD) funding alone could only pay for one.
Mr Pollard told MPs on Westminster’s Scottish Affairs Committee that the UK Government wanted to see one of the new colleges set up in the east of Scotland, with another in the west.
Five DTECs are already scheduled to open in England in September 2026, with Labour West Dunbartonshire MP Douglas McAllister saying the colleges in Scotland could be a year behind that.
If we can’t get the match funding from the conversations with the Scottish Government, then the MoD has funding for one defence technical excellence college in Scotland
He asked the minister: “If the Scottish Government don’t wish to come into partnership with the MoD here, are we looking at just one DTEC for Scotland, are two contingent on Scottish Government match funding?”
Mr Pollard told him: “If we can’t get the match funding from the conversations with the Scottish Government, then the MoD has funding for one defence technical excellence college in Scotland, and we would need to understand how a decision would be made about location in that situation.”
However, he told the committee his “strong preference” was for two such facilities to be established, saying he was “still going down the path to work with the Scottish Government to see two”.
Stressing a “conversation” was taking place with the SNP administration in Edinburgh, Mr Pollard told the committee the MoD had been in touch with Scottish Government officials, while he had written to First Minister John Swinney on the issue – and had received a reply from Economy Secretary Stephen Flynn.
Mr Pollard said he hoped discussions could be “concluded positively”, adding that there was “absolutely an economic opportunity here”.
He said: “We know there are brilliant young Scots who could be getting a career in defence if we get this right, and that is what I hope we can achieve.”
He added that, “to do so we need the Scottish Government and UK Government working together”, with Mr Pollard saying: “I think that is something that can happen here.
“I’m hoping that now the elections are out the way in Scotland, we can have those conversations in person soon.”
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “After a request by the Economy Secretary for further information on these plans, some additional detail was supplied by the UK Government on Tuesday.
“Ministers will carefully consider this information now that it has been provided and discuss with UK Government counterparts, once appointed by the new Prime Minister, in due course.”