UK defence contractors should buy British, says boss of Scarborough manufacturing company

Mr Pickering told The Yorkshire Post: “We lost a Government contract at a major UK defence shipyard to a foreign competitor. We asked to see the scoring matrix in connection with this decision and they declined. We protested at the unfair process through our local MP and Government ministers but they were unable to help.

"This is UK tax payers’ money, we should be supporting UK manufacturing not just buying on price, which clearly happened in this instance."

He believes big government contractors should be forced to justify why they don’t buy from British manufacturers.

Mr Pickering said that “every £1 spent in the UK is worth way more than £1..as that £1 is recycled many times, whereas a £1 spent with a foreign reseller is lost to someone else's economy.

He added: "And the bigger picture is skills, once they are gone they are gone. Then we can watch the foreign suppliers crank up the prices when the competition is eliminated.

"For me, there should an absolute minimum of a transparent scoring matrix to all suppliers, there should be a weighting for UK manufacturing, and then an appeal process in case they have misunderstood in the scoring matrix.

He added: "Nine times out of 10 we will win the technical argument, for service and support, (and win on our) track record and residual value, but money is given on an unfair bias. I am totally up for competition, but it has to be fair and all encompasing."

A Ministry of Defence spokesperson said: “We recognise the vital contribution the UK defence industry makes to the economy through jobs, skills, innovation and exports. Latest figures show we spend more than £21bn annually with UK industry and commerce, including almost £1bn directly with Small and Medium-sized Enterprises. Large contracts without a specific exemption must publicly state the award criteria, including criteria weightings, scoring mechanism and the evaluation process.”

When undertaking procurements, the Ministry of Defence evaluates the social, economic and environmental benefits as part of the award decision, the spokesman added.

The statement added: “We’re taking steps to make it easier for SMEs to access opportunities and to bid for requirements. We are also encouraging our major suppliers to publish their own sub-contract opportunities through the Defence Sourcing Portal, making it easier for SMEs to find and bid in for defence work.”