§ Lord Astor of Heverasked Her Majesty's Government:
On what date the Ministry of Defence received the report from QinetiQ of the findings of test flights undertaken to establish whether the Eurofighter Typhoon was safe to be accepted into service; to which Minister the report was given; on what date; and what was the consequential ministerial decision. [HL3049]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence (Lord Bach)The Ministry of Defence commissioned from QinetiQ a technical assessment of Typhoon as part of the normal process of introducing a new aircraft type into RAF service. The report was received by officials on 30 April 2003 and was taken into account, along with all other relevant factors and analysis, in the release to service authorisation granted by the Assistant Chief of the Air Staff on 13 May. This allows the aircraft to be flown under the RAF flight safety regime rather than industry arrangements. Since the process does not directly involve Ministers, they did not receive a copy of the report.