Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether legal advice was taken by his Department prior to the publication of the Special Purpose Ship tender.

The value and nature of the tender for the Special Purpose Ship sits within the commercial delegations of the Royal Navy's procurement process when applying the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 and supporting framework, meaning individual legal advice is not usually taken for each such tender.

However, I have asked the Royal Navy to review the details of this tender and will write to the rightt hon.Member in due course and place a copy of my letter in the Library of the House.