HC Deb 15 January 2001 vol 361 cc40-1W
Mr. Gordon Prentice

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if the private security industry is used to guard MOD installations; and if he will make a statement. [144857]

Dr. Moonie

I refer my hon. Friend to the answer my hon. Friend the Minister for the Armed Forces gave to the hon. Member for Salisbury (Mr. Key) on 2 March 2000,Official Report, columns 328–29W. Private security companies are used on certain unarmed guarding tasks by the Ministry of Defence. A number of locations where they are employed are sites controlled by Defence Estates and awaiting disposal; at these sites the role of commercial guards is to prevent vandalism and to control access on health and safety grounds. Where private security companies are employed at occupied sites they form part of an integrated guard force appropriate to the establishment concerned. Their employment is governed by guidance to ensure that their performance meets the Department's security standards, and in accordance with an undertaking given by Ministers to the HCDC in 1995 that 75 per cent. of the Department's unarmed civilian guarding would be regained by the MOD Guard Service.