Historical Document · 2017
Defence Equipment and Support's reply of 15 November 2017 to a Freedom of Information request on the cost of the A2 upgrade and the first tranche of the A3. Cited by the SA80 dive.
DE&S Secretariat (Land Equipment) Ministry of Defence DESSEC-PolSecLE-JSC-WPNSOmod.uk Via: [email protected] Defence Equipment & Support Maple Oa # 2043 MOD Abbey Wood Bristol BS34 BJH 9 15 November 2017 Our Ref: F012017/09121 Dear Thank you for your email of 21st September 2017 requesting the following information: I am filing a request to be informed of: A) the cost of a single SAGO rifle or the costs of each type of rifle i.e. L86 LSW, L98A2 Cadet GP Rifle, L85A2 IW, L22A2 Carbine and L85A2 Carbine B) The total cost of the SA80 A2 upgrade by Heckler & Koch. C) The expected cost of the upcoming 5,480 A3 mid-life upgrade D) the annual costs of running and repairing existing SA80 Rifles I am treating your correspondence as a request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA). A search for the information has now been completed within the Ministry of Defence, and I can confirm that information in scope of your request is held. The information you have requested can be found below, but some of the information falls entirely within the scope of the absolute exemption provided for at section 21 (Information Reasonably Accessible to Applicant) and the qualified exemption provided for at section 43 (Commercial Interests) of the FOIA and has been withheld. Section 43 is a qualified exemption and is subject to public interest testing which means that the information requested can only be withheld if the public interest in doing so outweighs the public interest in disclosure. Section 43 (2) considers information which if released is likely to prejudice the commercial interests of any person. A person may be an individual, a company, the MOD, or any other legal entity. Disclosing the information requested would be considered a breach of commercial confidentiality. This could result in other companies being reluctant to provide commercially sensitive information to the MOD. It could also be seen to prejudice any future competitive exercises undertaken by the MOD or the contractor. The responses to your questions are as follows: A) The information requested is being withheld under 521 (Information Reasonably Accessible to Applicant). The information has already been published and can be found at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment data/file/654131/201707603.pdf fiefonrca Fre tinmpnt ft. Si ,nnnrt B) £111m (ex VAT). C) The long term programme assumptions are still being modelled and we are, therefore, unable to provide realistic cost estimates at this time. However, the expected cost of the initial 5,000 weapons is £4.4m (ex VAT). D) Information withheld under s43 (Commercial Interests). If you have any queries regarding the content of this letter, please contact this office in the first instance. If you wish to complain about the handling of your request, or the content of this response, you can request an independent internal review by contacting the Information Rights Compliance team, Ground Floor, MOD Main Building, Whitehall, SW1A 2HB (e-mail [email protected]). Please note that any request for an internal review should be made within 40 working days of the date of this response. If you remain dissatisfied following an internal review, you may raise your complaint directly to the Information Commissioner under the provisions of Section 50 of the Freedom of Information Act. Please note that the Information Commissioner will not normally investigate your case until the MOD internal review process has been completed. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF. Further details of the role and powers of the Information Commissioner can be found on the Commissioner's website at https://ico.orchuW. Yours sincerely, DES SEC Pal Sec Land Equipment Defence Equipment & Support 2