Defence Reform Bill — Clause 49 — Report 12 Weeks In Advance of Consideration of Laws Enabling A Company To Provide Defence Procurement Services — 29 Apr 2014 at 17:30

The majority of MPs voted against requiring a report on the options for carrying out defence procurement to be published twelve weeks prior to the submission to parliament of any proposals for a company to provide defence procurement services to the Ministry of Defence, instead just requiring the report at the same time as the submission.

MPs were considering the Defence Reform Bill^[1]

The motion rejected in this vote was:

• Amendment (a) proposed to Lords amendment 7.

The Amendment (a) concerned stated^[2]:

• Line 6, after ‘(2B)’, insert ‘At least 12 weeks’.

The amendment 7 which was being amended^[3] stated:

• Page 31, line 35, at end insert—
• “(2A) No statutory instrument containing an order under subsection (1) in respect of Part 1 (with or without provision under subsection (4)) is to be made unless a draft of the instrument has been laid before, and approved by a resolution of, each House of Parliament.
• (2B) Before a draft is laid before Parliament in accordance with subsection (2A),the Secretary of State must—
• (a) prepare and lay before Parliament a report on the options for carrying out defence procurement, and
• (b) publish the report.
• (2C) A report on the options for carrying out defence procurement is a report about—
• (a) the arrangements of a kind mentioned in section 1 that the Secretary of State proposes to make following the coming into force of that section, and
• (b) any other options for carrying out defence procurement that the Secretary of State has considered as an alternative to those proposed arrangements.
• (2D) The report must include—
• (a) an assessment of the impact of the proposed arrangements and the other options, and
• (b) any other information the Secretary of State considers appropriate for the purpose of enabling a proper comparison to be made between the proposed arrangements and the other options.
• (2E) The report must deal with at least one other option under subsection(2C)(b), namely the carrying out of defence procurement by the Secretaryof State in the way it is carried out at the time of the report.(2F) In subsections (2B) to (2E) “defence procurement” has the meaning given by section 1(8).”

The amendment would have required a report on the options for carrying out defence procurement to be published twelve weeks before putting proposals for enabling a company to provide defence procurement services to Parliament for consideration, whereas previously the report was only required "before" the submission of proposals to parliament. Currently part of the MoD, the Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) organisation provides the procurement services which the Bill enables, subject to secondary legislation, to be provided via a company.

• [1] Parliament's webapage on the Defence Reform Bill
• [2] Amendment sheet containing the amendment to the Lords amendment for consideration on the 29th of April 2014
• [3] Lords Amendments to the Defence Reform Bill - 3 April 2014
• [4] Clause 49 of the Bill, to which the amendments would take effect

Debate in Parliament | Source |