§ Mr. JenkinTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what representations he has received from the US Administration concerning the transfer of parts of DERA to the private sector; what concerns they raised; and how they will be resolved. [42339]
§ Dr. Moonie[holding answer 11 March 2002]: As part of the DERA PPP consultation process, we had extensive contacts with and received representations from a wide range of organisations including the US and other Allies. I refer the hon. Member to the answers given by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Defence to the hon. Members for Truro and St. Austell (Mr. Taylor) on 6 March 2000, Official Report, column 484W, for Portsmouth, South (Mr. Hancock) on 18 May 2000, Official Report, column 205W) and for Aldershot (Mr. Howarth) on 22 June 2000, Official Report, column 241W, detailing these representations.
On the completion of the Consultation exercise, the US indicated that they welcomed the changes made in response to their representations and those of other interested parties. Mr. Rudy de Leon, US Deputy Secretary for Defense, said
I welcome the new proposal, which I believe to be constructive and workable. Inevitably there are a number of detailed issues to be resolved during implementation, but I am confident that these can be addressed satisfactorily.During the separation process, we continued to work closely with all our international partners to ensure that they had confidence that the Ministry of Defence would be able to meet all of its obligations under international collaborative agreements. The arrangements put in place at the vesting of QinetiQ as a Plc on 1 July 2001 to ensure that international collaboration continued, are operating successfully.