Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether non-disclosure agreements agreed between his Department and prime defence contractors purport to prohibit industry experts from providing evidence to the House of Commons Defence Committee.

It is Ministry of Defence (MOD) policy to use standard contract conditions to prevent the unauthorised disclosure of information for a variety of reasons, including protection of national security, commercial confidentiality and personal data.

The MOD would only use Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) in its commercial arrangements by exception. Any such NDAs, if agreed, would be prepared on a project by project basis: the MOD does not hold any central record of any such agreements.

Similarly, the MOD has no centrally held records of any contractual conditions or NDAs that would prevent an industry expert from attending a Parliamentary Committee. Where circumstances arose in which information is requested, the disclosure of which may be prohibited under contractual arrangements; for example, on grounds of national security or commercial sensitivities, this would have to be carefully considered on a case by case basis.