§ Mr. Campbell-SavoursTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what further steps he is taking to improve the process of defence procurement.
§ Mr. SainsburyEfforts to improve the process of defence procurement, aimed at achieving better value for money, will continue unabated. We shall continue to stress the importance of competition and a more commercial approach to contracting, and we will continue to encourage the widest possible range of companies to compete for our business. In particular, the new suppliers service, launched in November 1988 to extend the range of the highly successful work of the small firms advice division, encourages new suppliers of any size and background to bring their products and services to the attention of the MOD.
We are continuing to implement the recommendations of the Jordan/Lee/Cawsey report "Learning From Experience" including those concerning a fully professional approach to project management.
We are encouraging our allies, through the NATO conference of national armamaments directors (CNAD), also to adopt a more commercial approach to defence 425W procurement. Within Europe, we wholeheartedly support the work of the Independent European Programme Group (IEPG), which we currently chair, which aims to promote a more open market in defence goods.