Oral question asked in the House of Lords, by Lord Garden (Liberal Democrat). It was answered on Tuesday, 6 December 2005.

British Army Uniforms

Question: My Lords, how many variants are there to what is paradoxically called uniform in the British forces? Given the wide variety of uniforms, if the Ministry of Defence is looking for better ways to spend defence money, might it now be time, as everyone in units wears DPM kit rather than other uniforms, to look at whether the more esoteric and expensive items might be held centrally, rather than on personal issue?

Answer: My Lords, the defence industrial strategy, with which I know the noble Lord is familiar and on which there will soon be some public announcements, has looked carefully at supply of uniforms. One of the reasons we have this single major contract with Cooneen, Watts and Stone is that we found that past procurement of uniforms had not been as efficient and effective as it should have been. So the noble Lord is right, and we have learned the lessons that he his asking us to learn; but we learned them before he asked us.

Secondary information

Type: Oral question
Reference: 676 c508-9
Session: 2005-06
Oral question type: Supplementary
Chamber / Committee: House of Lords chamber
Related items: Deposited Paper DEP 06/101
Tuesday, 20 December 2005
Deposited papers
House of Lords
House of Commons
Subjects: Army China Procurement Uniforms
Link: View this Oral question on www.publications.parliament.uk