Military Aid: Procurement
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department takes to ensure subcontractors on arms and defence contracts do not route payments through offshore accounts in the Cayman Islands, Geneva, Bahrain and similar jurisdictions; and whether any such payments have been identified on contracts.
Answered by Luke Pollard
The Ministry of Defence (MOD) applies stringent commercial, legal and assurance controls to require contractors and their supply chains to comply with UK law and Government counter‑fraud standards, including obligations on transparency, ethical conduct, and the prevention of fraud, bribery and corruption.
The Department does not tolerate the use of offshore financial arrangements to obscure or improperly route payments, and any such activity, where identified, would be investigated and addressed.
Suppliers remain responsible for their own commercial and subcontracting arrangements; the MOD does not routinely monitor the routing of specific payments, but issues may be identified through audit, assurance or investigative activity and are acted on in line with MOD policy and legal obligations.
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