§ Mr. McNamaraTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many contracts his Department, agencies and associated bodies have had with EDS for each year since 1985; what was the value of each contract; if he will indicate for each contract(a) if it was completed, (b) what modifications were made at the request of (i) the company and (ii) the Department and (c) if work under contract is being undertaken in-house; and if he will make a statement on the number of job reductions in his Department arising from the contracting out of work by EDS. [3798]
§ Mr. ArbuthnotAs the management data held centrally for MoD headquarters contracts branches shows in excess of 150 live contracts and does not include the information required, the answers to this question could be provided only at disproportional cost. In addition, I refer the hon. Member to the answer that I gave on 16 October 1995,Official Report columns 31–32.
Where chief executives of my Department's agencies exercise responsibilities for this matter under the terms of their framework documents, I have asked them to write to the hon. Member direct.
Letter from John Chisholm to Mr. Kevin McNamara, dated 14 November 1996:
293WI have been asked to reply on behalf of the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA) to your question to the Secretary of State for Defence about contracts with EDS. DERA is a next steps Agency within the Ministry of Defence which, through a predecessor agency, the Defence Research Agency (DRA), has had delegated authority to make contracts since 1991.Our current contracts records system goes back to 1992, which is when the DRA introduced a new Improved Commercial Accounting System. These records show that DERA currently has 135 contracts with EDS at a total approximate value of £20.5M and 270 completed contracts with a total value of just under £21M. In the time available we have not been able to identify any direct job losses in DERA or its predecessor organisations arising from contracts with EDS.I am sorry but the remaining information you have asked for could only be provided at disproportionate cost.Letter from J. C. R. Hunt to Mr. Kevin McNamara, dated 14 November 1996:
I am replying to your Question to the Secretary of State for Defence and his colleagues about contracts with EDS. I am answering on behalf of the Meterological Office to the extent that the questions fall within my area of responsibility as. Chief Executive.The Meterological Office has let only one contract with EDS in the period in question. It was let in May 1995 and its value was some –27K. The work involved was completed satisfactorily. No modifications to the specified work were called for either by myself or the contractor, there was no in-house involvement and in consequence no job reductions followed.I hope this gives you the information you need.Letter from Michael R. Pack to Mr. Kevin McNamara, dated 14 November 1996:
You recently asked the Secretary of State for Defence a Parliamentary Question about contractual relations between his Department and EDS.For the Hydrographic Office Defence Agency, the issues raised fall within the responsibilities delegated to the Chief Executive, Rear Admiral J P Clarke. In the normal course of events, Admiral Clarke would reply to you personally. However, he is at present absent from the Office on official duly and I am replying on his behalf.Before 31 March 1996, contracts were not let by the Hydrographic Office but by the appropriate contract branch within the Ministry of Defence. Since becoming a trading fund on 1 April 1996, two contracts have been placed by the Hydrographic Office with EDS: one small contract to provide training in a software package for the management of geographic data; and a more substantial contract to provide post design services for the document management and geographic management systems themselves. The former is complete; the latter on-going.