Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, which defence contracts were granted exemption from the single source regulation regime in (a) 2015-16, (b) 2016-17 and (c) 2017-18; and what was the value of each of those contracts.

All exemptions from the Single Source Contract Regulations have to be personally authorised by the Secretary of State, who only does so under exceptional circumstances. Between April 2015 and March 2018, fewer than 10 contracts were exempted, valued at less than 1% of the 19.4 billion worth of single source defence contracts brought under the regime during that period. These were exempted from the regulations on a variety of grounds, including when value for money assurance could be achieved through, for example, purchasing commercially priced items.

Details of individual contracts and the numbers exempted in each year have not been provided because disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice the commercial interests of the companies involved or the Ministry of Defence.