Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what weight he attached to the marking criteria for National Security Objective 3 in developing each of his Department's contracts whose value is £10 million or above for which that objective was taken into account.

Between publication of the Strategic Defence and Security Review in November 2015 and 31 March 2018, the Ministry of Defence awarded nearly 250 contracts above £10 million. Nearly 40 of these are worth more than £100 million, with none over £1 billion. These figures do not include extensions to existing contracts. Information on contracts awarded during the 2018-19 financial year is not yet available.

Our investment appraisals process follows HM Treasury Green Book rules, which allow consideration of a range of factors including those within the scope of National Security Objective 3 if relevant, robust data is available. However, information on the criteria and weightings used for individual contracts varies, is not held centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

On 14 March 2019, the Defence Secretary announced an ambitious Defence Prosperity Programme to grow defence's contribution to UK prosperity. As part of this programme we are working jointly with industry and academia to improve the quality and relevance of defence economic data that is available to decision maker.