Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will make it his policy to increase parliamentary accountability of Defence Equipment and Support.

Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) became a bespoke trading entity, an arm's length body of the Ministry of Defence (MOD) on 1 April 2014. As detailed in the DE&S Framework Document, which sets out the governance arrangements of the organisation, the Secretary of State for Defence is accountable to Parliament for all aspects of DE&S's performance. In addition, the DE&S Chief Executive Officer is designated as an Accounting Officer and is therefore fully accountable to Parliament for the stewardship of DE&S resources.

The Framework Document contains more details about these arrangements and is available on gov.uk at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/defence-equipment-and-support-framework-document.