§ 20. Mr. RichardsTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what is his policy towards contracting out the Army's engineering and maintenance work.
§ Mr. AitkenMy Department's policy is to expose in-house activities to competition from the private sector, wherever possible. Base repair and overhaul of Army equipment is carried out by the Army Base Repair Organisation, a defence agency. ABRO is currently implementing a programme of market testing its services. The pilot market test, of 18 base workshop, was won by the in-house team following a keenly contested competition.
In fact, quite apart from the market-testing initiative, the Army Base Repair Organisation already contracts with 129W industry to undertake about a third of its work load, by volume. This dual sourcing between the agency's own workshops and private industry provides an element of competition, and safeguards the ability to surge above the organisation's normal repair capacity during times of crisis.