;Baroness Symons, Minister of State for Defence Procurement, today made the following statement:
"The Ministry of Defence has received today's report by the House of Commons Defence Committee on defence research and the proposals to establish a Public Private Partnership for the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency. We will, of course, consider the report carefully and make a detailed response in due course.
"The Government is spending substantial sums on defence research and will continue to do so. Of course the level of funding must take account of the many other competing calls on resources allocated to defence.
"DERA is the key to providing the nation with an effective defence capability, and it is very important that we get its future structure right. That is why we have been carrying out a very thorough consultation exercise on our PPP proposals with all stakeholders, including industry, our international partners, DERA's staff and Trades Unions.
"The Secretary of State, Geoffrey Hoon, announced last month that we would now be widening the scope of our discussions in order to address concerns raised during the consultation exercise. We are committed to DERA PPP and are confident that we can achieve a solution which will strengthen DERA's ability to provide world class scientific research, while at the same time preserving our essential defence interests and maintaining our valuable collaborative relationships.
"No final decision has been taken on any specific PPP model for DERA, and none will until we are confident we have got this right."
