Procurement Risk:

Low

Score:

74/100

Government Policy

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Q57 50/100

Does the country have legislation covering defence and security procurement with clauses specific to corruption risks, and are any items exempt from these laws?

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Legal framework Score: NS / 100
This indicator is not assigned a score in the GDI. The Defence and Security Public Contract Regulations (DSPCR) 2011 implemented the EU Defence and…
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Corruption risks Score: 75 / 100
The DSPCR makes brief reference to corruption as a risk in procurement in chapters 8, 15 and 16 but refers to the HM Treasury…
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Effectiveness Score: 25 / 100
The NAO frequently identifies issues with defence procurement and Contracting, as outlined in the examples provided [1, 2]. These may not constitute legislative breaches…
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Q58 83/100

Is the defence procurement cycle process, from assessment of needs, through contract implementation and sign-off, all the way to asset disposal, disclosed to the public?

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Formal procedures Score: 100 / 100
The defence procurement cycle is formalised as the CADMID cycle, and comprises six acquisition phases: Concept, Assessment, Demonstration, Manufacture, In-Service, and Dispose (CADMIT for…
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Transparency Score: 100 / 100
The Ministry of Defence publishes an annual Defence Equipment Plan, which sets out spending plans for procurement over a 10 year period and outlines…
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Implementation Score: 50 / 100
There are detailed policies and procedures for each step of the implementation process of the procurement cycle that can be found within CADMID and…
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Q59 92/100

Are defence procurement oversight mechanisms in place and are these oversight mechanisms active and transparent?

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Independence Score: 75 / 100
Defence procurement oversight is undertaken by the Investment Approval Committee (IAC), the National Audit Office (NAO) and, in part, the Public Accounts Committee. The…
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Effectiveness Score: 100 / 100
The IAC has the power to cancel or approve spending projects, whilst the NAO publishes regular reports on defence spending, issuing reccommendations [1]. The…
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Transparency Score: 100 / 100
Comprehensive evidence of activity is available for the NAO and Public Accounts Committee [1][2]. The Major Projects Report also contains detailed information on majro…
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Q60 100/100

Are potential defence purchases made public?

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Policies Score: 100 / 100
The Ministry of Defence publishes an annual Defence Equipment Plan [1]. The plan sets out the equipment budget and forecast expenditure on equipment over…
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Notice of planned purchases Score: 100 / 100
The Equipment Plan sets out the equipment budget and forecast expenditure on equipment over a ten-year period. It includes spending on both new equipment…
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Q61 75/100

Are actual defence purchases made public?

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Comprehensiveness Score: 50 / 100
The Defence contracts Bulletin is a monthly MoD publication that provides access to ‘all MoD contracts above £10,000… the MoD’s ongoing and upcoming equipment…
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Accessible data Score: 100 / 100
Data on all spending above £25,000 as well as above £500 on a Governmental Procurement Card is available in an accessible format, viewable online,…
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Capability Gap and Requirements Definition

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Q62 38/100

What procedures and standards are companies required to have – such as compliance programmes and business conduct programmes – in order to be able to bid for work for the Ministry of Defence or armed forces?

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Formal policies Score: 50 / 100
There are some procedures in terms of selecting suppliers and sub-contractors on the basis of their integrity. The Pre-Qualification Questionnaire required to be completed…
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Consistent implementation Score: 25 / 100
Evidence suggests that, despite numerous allegations of corruption and bribery being made, the MoD has not excluded any companies from bidding for contracts, as…
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Q63 92/100

Are procurement requirements derived from a national defence and security strategy, and are procurement decisions well-audited? Are defence purchases based on clearly identified and quantified requirements?

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Procurement requirements Score: 100 / 100
Procurement requirements are derived from the Defence Equipment Plan, an annually published defence and security strategy for a 10 year period. The plan is…
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Scrutiny Score: 100 / 100
Alongside the annual publication of the Defence Equipment Plan, the NAO publishes a report that examines the strategy put forward by the MoD, scrutinising…
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Purchases Score: 75 / 100
The majority of purchases are based on clearly identified and quantified requirements, which are outlined in the Defence Equipment Plan [1]. However, the NAO…
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Tender Solicitation, Assessment and Contract Award

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Q64 50/100

Is defence procurement generally conducted as open competition or is there a significant element of single-sourcing (that is, without competition)?

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Open competition Score: 50 / 100
Despite the desire for greater competition, the proportion of contracts let competitively has remained largely unchanged for five years at around 50%, while the…
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Scrutiny of single/restricted competition procedures Score: 50 / 100
In January 2015, the UK government established the Single Source Regulations Office (SSRO) as an independent body responsible for ensuring fairness to government (value…
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Q65 69/100

Are tender boards subject to regulations and codes of conduct and are their decisions subject to independent audit to ensure due process and fairness?

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Conflicts of interest Score: 50 / 100
Civilians working for tender boards are bound by the Civil Service Management Code which requires them to declare conflicts of interests to senior management,…
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Audit Trail Score: 75 / 100
The Commercial Policy Statement on Tender Preparation and Process Management requires tender boards to “maintain full records of the Pre-Contract Award Evaluation (PCAE) activity…
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Transparency Score: 100 / 100
Chapter 16 of the DCSPR provides regulations for Tender Boards and is fully accessible [1]. Tender Boards are also bound by the Civil Service…
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Scrutiny Score: 50 / 100
User requirements are set by the military capability customer, and then the Delivery Agent works up detailed technical requirements specifications and multiple independent functions…
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Q66 94/100

Does the country have legislation in place to discourage and punish collusion between bidders for defence and security contracts?

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Legal framework Score: 100 / 100
The Competition Act 1998, which applies to defence and security bidding, outlaws anti-competitive behaviour such as collusion [1]. Chapter 2 of the Act provides…
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Sanctions Score: 100 / 100
Regulation 57 of the Public contracts Regulation 2015 empowers procurement officials to exclude companies and senior company officials where there is a conviction or…
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Enforcement Score: 100 / 100
The Competition Act 1998 established a non-ministerial body currently called the Competition and Markets Authority which has the power to investigate and prosecute violations…
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Training Score: 75 / 100
In December 2017, the Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) announced new guidance and learning resources designed to help combat collusion between suppliers bidding for public…
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Contract Delivery and In-Service Support

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Q67 69/100

Are there mechanisms and procedures that ensure that contractors meet their obligations on reporting and delivery?

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Reporting policies & procedures Score: 100 / 100
There are formal policies and procedures that outline how to monitor, assess and report upon a supplier’s service and or delivery obligations. The Commercial…
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Transparency Score: 50 / 100
Research was not able to identify any publicly available data relating to contract failures and modifications post-award [1]. However, it is worth noting that…
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Monitoring Score: 75 / 100
The Commercial Policy statement “Contract Management – the Commercial Role” [1] suggests that Contract monitoring and completion reports are produced for each Contract. However,…
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Enforcement Score: 50 / 100
The Commercial Policy statement “Contract Management – the Commercial Role” [1] has a separate section on breaches of contract, and states that “addressing poor…
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Q68 92/100

Are there mechanisms in place to allow companies to complain about perceived malpractice in procurement, and are companies protected from discrimination when they use these mechanisms?

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Complaints mechanisms Score: 100 / 100
There is a general, MoD-wide complaints procedure which outlines how to make a complaint and what to do if one is not satisfied with…
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Effectiveness and Accessibility Score: 75 / 100
The complaints mechanism available to companies is free. However, it does not appear to be used a lot, as there were only 20 complaints…
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Retaliation Score: 100 / 100
Based on the multitude and regularity of complaints, some of which are expressed publicly by companies, there is no reason to assume that companies…
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Q69 75/100

What sanctions are used to punish the corrupt activities of a supplier?

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Sanctions Score: 100 / 100
The grounds for exclusion of bidders from public procurement procedures are set out in The Public contracts Regulations 2015 [1]. Bidders should be excluded…
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Undue influence Score: 100 / 100
Cases are investigated and prosecuted through formal processes, and there is no public evidence to indicate any potential undue influence [1, 2]. It can…
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Application of sanctions Score: 25 / 100
There have been concerns expressed over the application of sanctions when it comes to corrupt activities of a supplier [1, 2]. According to the…
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Offset Contracts

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Q70 100/100

When negotiating offset contracts, does the government specifically address corruption risk by imposing anti-corruption due diligence on contractors and third parties?

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Legal framework Score: 100 / 100
Offsets are prohibited under the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA) 21 binding nearly 40 countries, including the UK [1]. Prior…
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Due diligence Score: NA / 100
This indicator is marked Not Applicable, given the fact that offsets are explicitly prohibited [1].
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Q71 NA/100

How does the government monitor offset contracts?

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Policies & procedures Score: NA / 100
This indicator is marked Not Applicable, given the fact that offsets are prohibited under the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA)…
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Transparency Score: NA / 100
This indicator is marked Not Applicable, given the fact that offsets are prohibited under the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA)…
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Monitoring Score: NA / 100
This indicator is marked Not Applicable, given the fact that offsets are prohibited under the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA)…
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Enforcement Score: NA / 100
This indicator is marked Not Applicable, given the fact that offsets are prohibited under the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA)…
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Q72 NA/100

What level of competition are offset contracts subject to?

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Score: NA / 100
This indicator is marked Not Applicable, given the fact that offsets are prohibited under the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA)…
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Agents / Brokers

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Q73 63/100

How strongly does the government control the company’s use of agents and intermediaries in the procurement cycle?

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Policies Score: 75 / 100
According to a report published by the Bird & Bird Law Firm, public sector procurement in the United Kingdom is based on free and…
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Enforcement Score: 50 / 100
There is limited evidence of the enforcement of policies and procedures related to the use of agents in defence. However, it should be noted…
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Financing Package

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Q74 50/100

Are the principal aspects of the financing package surrounding major arms deals, (such as payment timelines, interest rates, commercial loans or export credit agreements) made publicly available prior to the signing of contracts?

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Score: 50 / 100
Key information about the total spend on procurement and the date of planned spend is published in the MoD’s Defence Equipment Plan [1]. This…
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Seller Influence

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Q75 NS/100

How common is it for defence acquisition decisions to be based on political influence by selling nations?

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Prevalence: selling nations Score: NS / 100
This indicator is not assigned a score in the GDI. UK defence purchases are conducted within clear policy frameworks such as the Defence Equipment…
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Justification Score: NS / 100
This indicator is not assigned a score in the GDI. The UK MoD does not operate with preferred supplier lists and has clear procurement…
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Prevalence: domestic pressures Score: NS / 100
This indicator is not assigned a score in the GDI. UK defence purchases are conducted within clear policy frameworks such as the Defence Equipment…
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