House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for Thursday 07 November 2013
Defence: Procurement
John Woodcock: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what proportion of expenditure on defence procurement contracts valued in excess of £5 million was placed with UK-based small and medium-sized enterprises in each of the last three years. [172619]
Mr Dunne: The Ministry of Defence has published details of expenditure with small and medium-sized enterprises over the last three years, this is available at the following link:
http://www.dasa.mod.uk/index.php/publications/finance-and-economics/MOD-contracting-with-small-and-medium-sized-enterprises/financial-year-2012-13
Information specifically related to contracts with a value over £5 million is, however, not separately identified. This information will take additional time to collate and I will write to the hon. Member.
Substantive answer from Philip Dunne to John Woodcock:
I undertook to write to you in response to your Parliamentary Question on 28th October 2013, (Official Report, column 351W), to your recent question about defence procurement contracts with Small and medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs), I am now writing to provide the additional information you requested on contracts over £5 million.
The proportion of expenditure with SMEs on contracts valued at over £5 million was 3% in each of the financial years 2010-11, 2011-12 and 2012-13. The analysis includes open contracts within these financial years, which have a value in excess of £5 million and which have incurred some expenditure. Some contracts have expenditure exceeding £5 million but a recorded contract value of less than £5 million; this would indicate that the recorded contract value is incorrect. For this reason we have also included such contracts in the analysis.
The data underpinning this analysis has been extracted from the Ministry of Defence (MOD) contracts database. This information is initially input by MOD commercial staff when most contracts are established. The contracts database covers the majority of such payments and reflects transactions made by the MOD’S Defence Business Services in Liverpool, which handles about 95% of all payments made by the MOD and Defence Agencies. Payments not included are those which may have been made (a) on behalf of other government departments, (b) by the MOD’S Trading Funds and Executive Non Departmental Public Bodies (which lie outside the MOD’s accounting boundary), (c) locally by the Department, (d) through third parties such as prime contractors or other government departments and (e) in relation to collaborative projects where the payments are made through international procurement agencies or overseas governments. Government Procurement Card payments are also not included as they are not procurement contracts. Also excluded from our analysis are contracts with Government organisations where the MOD did not have the opportunity to influence placement of contracts with SMEs.
Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether there is a minimum voluntary offset threshold under the new Defence and Security Industrial Engagement Policy. [174202]
Mr Dunne: There is no voluntary offset threshold, minimum or otherwise, under the new Defence and Security Industrial Engagement Policy.
This policy, introduced following the publication of the Government’s White Paper “National Security through Technology” in February 2012, encourages overseas-based companies to work with the UK defence and security sectors on a voluntary basis in order to attract inward investment and improve capability to support the front line.
Ministerial Policy Advisers
Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many officials at what grades are employed to provide direct support to special advisers in his Department. [174051]
Anna Soubry: One official is employed to provide direct support to the special advisers at the Ministry of Defen