§ Mr. Ronald Brownasked the Secretary of State for Defence if he will publish in the Official Report a list of those persons and organisations that have pressed upon him the need to provide more defence contract work, together with the areas from which such requests have originated; and if he will indicate how many defence contracts have been switched to London-based contractors.
§ Mr. MasonI have received a great many such requests—in fact, more than a hundred over the past year—from MPs, trade unions officials, firms and local/ regional authorities. In addition, the contracts and technical divisions of my Department receive over 200 letters a month from firms seeking work or drawing attention to their capabilities and capacity.
In view of normal commercial and contractual confidentiality it would not be proper to disclose more details. To the best of my knowledge no contracts have been switched to London based firms.