Asked by: Martin Whitfield (Labour - East Lothian)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether she plans to launch a competition for SKYNET 6 Enduring Capability.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Department's default is competition, and this is the case for the SKYNET 6 Enduring Capability project. The SKYNET 6 team continually reinforces this message directly with industry through conferences, industry briefing days and in regular 1-2-1 meetings with key industrial partners.
Asked by: Martin Whitfield (Labour - East Lothian)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps her Department is taking to include SMEs in the SKYNET programme.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Department is following the Small to Medium Enterprise principles outlined in the National Security Through Technology 2012 white paper. The SKYNET 6 Programme is taking a very proactive approach to incentivise and incorporate SMEs across the whole programme.
The current SKYNET 5 programme already exceeds the 25% SME target which provides a strong foundation for the SKYNET 6 programme.
Asked by: Martin Whitfield (Labour - East Lothian)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the estimated cost is of SKYNET 6.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The estimated costs for the entire programme, out to the 2040s, is £7 billion.