To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many valid civilian passes granting access to his Department’s London buildings have been issued to employees of private defence companies in the last 12 months. [323684]

Records show that in the last 12 months, there were 137 passes issued to employees of companies identified by us as “private defence companies”. We have defined “private defence companies” as those we can readily identify as being primarily suppliers of weapon systems or defence materiel to the Department.

These passes only allow access to MOD Head Office (Main Building, Old War Office and St. George’s Court) and are issued to individuals who hold appropriate security clearances, have a genuine business need to regularly visit one of these London Offices and have been sponsored by a Head Office Business Unit. Figures are not held centrally for passes issued in respect of other MOD London buildings.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence to employees of which private defence companies have civilian passes granting access to his Department’s London buildings been issued since 1 January 2008. [323685]

Since 1 January 2008, building passes have been issued to employees of the private defence companies as listed. We have defined private defence companies as those we can readily identify as being primarily suppliers of weapon systems or defence materiel to the Department.

Augusta Westland

Babcock

BAE Systems

Boeing Defence UK

Cubic Defence Systems

EADS Defence and Security System

General Dynamics UK

J&S Marine

Lockheed Martin

MBDA Missile Systems

Niteworks

Northrop Grumman

Pearson Engineering

QinetiQ

Raytheon Systems

Roke Manor Research

Smiths Detection

Thales

Vega Group

Vosper Thornycroft

These passes only allow access to Ministry of Defence Head Office (Main Building, Old War Office and St. George’s Court) and are issued to individuals who hold appropriate security clearances, have a genuine business need to regularly visit one of these London Offices and have been sponsored by a Head Office Business Unit. Details are not held centrally for passes issued in respect of other MOD London buildings.