Prospect report shows defence procurement rules should be rewritten to benefit the UK

A new report by Prospect union, which represents workers in the defence industry, shows that the UK is not benefiting as it should from defence contracts and procurement rules should be rewritten.

The report “Design, Build and Maintain: Effective Defence Procurement” compares the amounts spent on defence overseas and finds the UK does far less to boost its own defence industry when deciding contracts than other countries. This means we are not getting value for money and the economy is losing out. While the UK says it gives more weight to the “social value” of contract bids there is no evidence that it actually does so, instead giving too much weight to baseline cost.

Prospect proposes a new set of rules for defence procurement with at their heart ‘the promotion and protection of sovereign capability in UK defence and dedicated to UK design, build, maintenance and repair for defence equipment.’ It also says that it should be possible to exclude bidders for a wider variety of reasons including social and industrial policy objectives.

Sue Ferns, Senior Deputy General Secretary if Prospect, said:

“The British defence procurement process is broken and does virtually nothing to promote and sustain domestic business, unlike other countries.

“We need a complete overhaul of the system so we can put UK jobs and the economy at the heart of the bidding process. Only by changing the way we do things will we secure sovereign capacity and support the defence jobs of the future.

“We call on all political parties to adopt these proposals and demonstrate their commitment to those communities who rely on defence jobs.”