Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to his Department’s press release entitled Historic £1.6bn deal provides thousands of air defence missiles for Ukraine and boosts UK jobs and growth, published 2 March 2025, whether an assessment was conducted under the Public Contract Regulations 2015 to determine whether a direct award was justifiable based on (a) extreme urgency and (b) operational necessity.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave him to Question 40323 on 28 March 2025.