BMARC (Hansard, 30 October 1995)

§ Mr. Cohen
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on the role of his Department's police in the BMARC case. [40100]

§ Mr. Soames
I have nothing to add to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Leyton on 4 July 1995,Official Report, column 178.

§ Mr. Cohen
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence on what grounds the documents and diaries of Mr. Gerald James were taken by the Ministry of Defence police; if he will make a statement on he relevance of their contents to his Department's investigations; and when they will all be returned to Mr. James. [40101]

§ Mr. Soames
As part of a wide-ranging MOD police corruption investigation involving the Astra group of companies, a number of documents were seized. All documents seized during those inquiries were considered company documents and were relevant to the inquiry. All documents taken from the Astra group of companies, belonging to those companies, have now been returned to the company liquidators.

§ Mr. Cohen
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what contracts his Department has had with BMARC since 1979. [40102]

§ Mr. Arbuthnot
Records covering the period since the financial year 1989–90 show that the Ministry of Defence placed the following contracts with BMARC:

1989–90: approximately 30 contracts valued £6.2 million.

1990–91: approximately 30 contracts valued £5.5 million.

1991–92 approximately 15 contracts valued £4.5 million.

1992–93 fewer than five contracts valued £1.7 million.
Information for the period before 1989–90 could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
British Manufacturer and Research Co. Ltd. went into administrative receivership in April 1992, and since 1992–93 no contracts have been placed with it.