Services Clothing Manufacture (Hansard, 12 March 1996)

§ Mr. Arbuthnot

This is a matter for the Defence Clothing and Textiles Agency under its framework document. I have asked the chief executive, DCTA, to write to the hon. Member.

Letter from Michael Roycroft to Mr. Gordon Prentice, dated 12 March 1996:

I am replying to your Question to the Secretary of State for Defence about the percentage of the clothing requirements of the armed forces that are manufactured in the UK, as this matter falls within my area of responsibility as Chief Executive of the Defence Clothing and Textiles Agency.In Financial Year 1994/95 the MOD placed over 90%, by value, of its Clothing & Textiles orders with British suppliers. The figure for Financial Year 1995/96 is likely to be similar. Therefore, under 10% of MOD Clothing & Textiles purchases have been from overseas suppliers. However, an increasing number of UK companies are subcontracting or sourcing from overseas because of the advantages in setting up and labour costs.When tendering, companies are required to provide details of any manufacturing source outside the tenderer's premises i.e. the nature of any subcontract work, including the name and address of the contractor who will carry it out. The minimum percentage of UK manufacture is 10% of the order quantity which must be manufactured at the prime contractor's ISO 9000 series certificated site. Apart from this requirement there is no obligation for contractors to provide further detail of the percentage of work to be 507W performed overseas, indeed with contractors subject to various factors e.g. exchange rates, extended lines of supply and possible offshore labour problems, percentages of manufacture in UK/offshore can often change during the duration of the contract/enabling arrangement.You will appreciate therefore that I cannot provide you with an accurate percentage of overseas manufacture. I hope that the foregoing is helpful but, if you have any further questions do not hesitate to contact me.