Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether competition is required for all his Department’s procurement programmes?
The National Security Through Technology white paper, which was published in 2012, sets out our overarching procurement principles. This states that, wherever possible, we will seek to fulfil the UK's defence and security requirements through open competition in the domestic and global market.
At times, however, the competitive procurement route is not always suitable. For example, where we can only contract with a single supplier because of exclusive Intellectual Property Rights, in times of extreme urgency, or when it is strictly necessary to protect our national security interests.