§ Mr. Tony BanksTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence if any Ministry of Defence contractors have been prosecuted for fraud connected with defence contracts since 1979.
§ Mr. SainsburyYes. Between January 1979 and October 1986 (the end of the most recent period for which full annual crime statistics are available) the Ministry of Defence police inquired into 36 allegations of serious crime involving defence contractors. Of these, 10 were classified as "no crime", nine were resolved by administrative action, eight resulted in prosecutions, and in the remaining cases investigations were still incomplete at the end of the period. I understand that there have also been a few such cases investigated by Home or Scottish Office police forces which have resulted in prosecutions but these are not centrally recorded.