§ Mr. MeacherTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence on what date officials from his Department were272W made aware of the contents of the Ferranti Cooper report into the merger with ISC; and what action was taken as a result of the conclusions of that report. [36818]
§ Mr. ArbuthnotI assume that the hon. Member is referring to a document which appears to be a report to the board of Ferranti Ltd. dated 8 September 1987 and entitled "Ferranti/International Signal and Control". There is no evidence that my Department was aware of the existence of this document until an extract from it was sent to the Department by the secretary of the Scott inquiry on 7 September 1994. My Department has taken no action based on the report other than to tell the Scott inquiry that there is no evidence of any previous knowledge of it.