Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, when he plans to publish guidance on social value in defence equipment contracts.

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) procurement decision-making processes continue to be based on HM Treasury's Green Book framework. This ensures that all relevant costs and benefits to UK society are considered when undertaking procurement and project appraisal, thereby reflecting the totality of impacts on UK society overall, referred to as social value.

In September 2020, the Cabinet Office published Procurement Policy Note (PPN) 06/20 requiring additional social value benefits to be explicitly evaluated in all central government procurement (where the requirements are relevant and proportionate) rather than just 'considered' as previously required. The Social Value Model set out in the PPN requires a minimum of 10% of the total tender evaluation weighting to be allocated to specific social value criteria.

The application of the Social Value Model has been required from 1 January 2021 for all procurements under the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 this has included a number of tenders conducted by the Ministry of Defence. From the 1st June 2021, the MOD will extend this to include all procurements under the Defence and Security Public Contract Regulations 2011.

The MOD will continue to follow the guidance provided in PPN 06/20, setting out how to take account of social value in the award of contracts by using the Social Value Model. Further information can be accessed on the gov.uk website at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/procurement-policy-note-0620-taking-account-of-social-value-in-the-award-of-central-government-contracts