§ Mr.Llew SmithTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on progress towards creating a Defence Diversification Agency. [130381]
§ Mr. IngramThe Defence Diversification Agency (DDA) was created in 1999 as part of the then Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA). In July 2001 the DDA became part of the Ministry of Defence head office when QinetiQ plc and the Defence Science and Technology Laboratories were created out of DERA.
Over the four years it has been operating the DDA has made very good progress. It has assisted over 2,000 firms with access to MOD's knowledge bases and
1158Wfacilitated more than 400 contracts to transfer defence technology and know how into the civil sector. DDA has also arranged for more than 40 commercial technology offering; to be made to MOD programmes, which has resulted in some 20 contracts to date.