§ Sir Ian Gilmourasked the Secretary of State for Defence which of the firms he has listed as having been involved in his Department's demountable rack off-loading pick-up system programme contributed original ideas which are now untilised in the demountable rack off-loading pick-up system equipment owned by his Department; if he will say what such ideas are; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Archie HamiltonOf the firms listed in my reply of 16 December 1986 (Official Report,c. 502), Foden, Multilift, and Powell Duffryn have all since supplied equipment for the DROPS procurement programme and which is now owned by the Department. I have no indications that these equipments were other than original to the firms or used information to which they had no entitlement.
§ Sir, Ian Gilmourasked the Secretary of State for Defence what comparative assessment he can make of (a)the extent of the involvement, (b) the duration of the involvement, (c)the closeness of the involvement, (d)the cost to the company and (e)the value to his Department of the contribution made, as between the companies involved in his Department's DROPS consideration between 1975 and 1982; and what assessment he can make of the comparative importance of the role played by each company in the process of considering the DROPS project.
§ Mr. Archie HamiltonIt is not possible to make the comparative assessment requested since the information on which it would need to be based is not available. The value of the part played by Boughton has, however, been acknowledged in correspondence between my right hon. Friend the then Secretary of State for Defence and my right hon. Friend in February 1984.