Ben Howlett
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Ben Howlett Excerpts(8 years, 8 months ago)
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Ben Howlett (Bath) (Con)
Given that Ministry of Defence procurement operates under European law, what assessment has the Minister made of a potential exit from the European Union on UK SMEs that rely on MOD contracts?
Mr Dunne
As my hon. Friend knows, the UK defence and security industry is the largest in Europe. As the default position, we continue to place contracts on the basis of open competition. EU procurement directives apply to our procurement, which means that EU contractors are eligible to compete for our contracts in the same way as UK and other international companies, other than when we declare an article 346 exemption for warlike stores, which accounts for about 45% of our procurement.
[Official Report, 29 February 2016, Vol. 606, c. 662.]
Letter of correction from Mr Dunne:
An error has been identified in the response I gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Bath (Ben Howlett) during Questions to the Secretary of State for Defence.
The correct response should have been: