Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what discussions his Department has had with Babcock International on the provision of information requested by the Single Source Regulations Office.

The Single Source Regulations Office (SSRO) have informed us that they have raised a number of queries on information contained in the statutory reports required to be completed by Babcock. In some of these cases, the SSRO have also sought clarification from the Ministry of Defence. Most of these concern issues that the Department routinely discusses with Babcock to assure itself that the costs charged are appropriate, attributable to the contract and reasonable, and hence allowable under the regulations, or ensuring that profit is calculated as prescribed by the legislation.