Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 24 March 2026 to Question 120877 on Ministry of Defence: Procurement, whether DEFCON516 requires private sector suppliers to follow the public sector equality duty; and whether there is (a) internal or (b) published guidance on DEFCON516.

DEFCON 516 (Equality) outlines the MOD’s requirement that contractors must not unlawfully discriminate on the grounds of age, disability, gender (including reassignment), sex or sexual orientation, marital status (including civil partnerships), pregnancy and maternity, race, or religion or belief. Contractors are also expected to take reasonable steps to ensure these terms are applied by their employees, agents, and sub-contractors. MOD Commercial Policy mandates the inclusion of this DEFCON in all MOD contracts.

Commercial guidance, including the full DEFCON 516, is available in the MoD’s internal Commercial Toolkit, which is hosted on Knowledge in Defence, a platform that is also publicly accessible.