Preserving industrial capability can be used as a measure to protect a nation's security interests under the Article 346 exemption in certain circumstances. For example, there is a requirement to protect our freedom of action to design, integrate and build Royal Navy warships, as this is critical to national security. All procurement decisions are still subject to value for money considerations.<\/p>
In the case of the Fleet Solid Support ships, the Article 346 exemption does not apply, because, as outlined in the 29 May 2018 letter to the Chair of the House of Commons Defence Committee, the ships are not deemed to be warships and there is no national security interest in limiting the competition to UK companies.<\/p>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/3910", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Guto Bebb"} } , "answeringMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Aberconwy"} , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Guto Bebb"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2018-07-09", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2018-07-09T16:02:21.667Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "11"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Defence"} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Defence"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2018-07-04", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Fleet Solid Support Ships: Procurement"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "1"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25259", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Commons"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State\u2019s letter to the Chair of the House of Commons Defence Committee, on the procurement of Fleet Solid Support ships dated 29 May 2018, whether the preservation of industrial capability can be classified to be a national security interest for the purpose of invoking Article 346 exemptions.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/1438", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Mr Kevan Jones"} } , "tablingMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "North Durham"} , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Mr Kevan Jones"} ], "uin" : "160709"} ], "itemsPerPage" : 10, "page" : 0, "startIndex" : 1, "totalResults" : 1, "type" : ["http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#ListEndpoint", "http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#Page"]} }