Question 44 (Dr John Pugh): Have you evidence to show services are being delivered more cheaply and more effectively given that the Report says there has been no benchmarking of service delivery
The Department's objectives, as set out in Appendix 2 of the NAO's Report into the privatisation of QinetiQ, included the introduction of commercial disciplines, to achieve reduced contract prices for the Department and other customers as a result of increased competition, economies and productivity. The NAO have concluded that, even six years after QinetiQ was created, it is challenging to measure the success of some of the Department's wider objectives. Given the very wide range of services (including research, project support, and test and evaluation) which QinetiQ provides to a diverse set of MOD customers, we do not believe there is any single metric which can be used to measure overall value for money. However, there are a number of pieces of evidence which support the view that the privatisation process has delivered good value to the Department as customer, as well as owner, of QinetiQ. These are set out below.