Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether all current Invitation to Negotiate arrangements in the contracts awarded by his Department allow, in extremis, a route to Ministers.

I refer the Right Hon. Gentleman to the letter I sent on 19 November 2020 (a copy of which I placed in the Library of the House) which made clear that no wording should be included in an Invitation to Tender which precludes contact being made, in extremis, with Ministers.

I am conducting an exercise to ensure this remains the case and will write to the Right Hon. Gentleman and place a copy of the letter in the library of the House.