To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list each private sector consultancy firm which has been retained by each agency within his Department, and for his Department as a whole, for the purposes of advising on the market testing programme; and whether the appointment in each case was the result of competitive tendering.

I have recently appointed Mr. Christopher Littmoden, finance director of Marks and Spencer, to act as a part-time private sector adviser on the Department's market testing programme. No consultancy firms are employed for this purpose.