Department appoints six providers of company data, who will deliver information on financial issues related to defence supply chain, as well as intel on operational capacity, cybersecurity and negative press
The Ministry of Defence has put in place a £14m agreement with six providers that will provide detailed intelligence on the financial and operational resilience of the nearly-10,000 organisations that constitute the department’s wider supply chain.
The MoD Data Framework came into effect on 9 November – almost exactly six months after it was revealed that military personnel data was breached during a successful attack on an external payroll software system used by the ministry, but delivered by tech supplier SSCL.
The new supply-chain data deal features a sextet of specialist suppliers of company and financial information: S&P Global; Moody’s Analytics; Sayari Labs; Company Watch; Dun & Bradstreet; and Altana Technologies.
These companies have all been appointed to an initial one-year engagement, which can be extended for two further years. The likely worth of the arrangement is currently estimated at £14.4m, inclusive of VAT.
During the lifespan of the framework, the ministry will use the agreement “for the purchasing of supplier data… in support of its supply chain management, development and resilience activities”, according to a commercial notice.
“The solution must enable identification of business entities and a broad range of data relating to their health and operations,” the notice adds. “Data should be accessible via supplier-owned tools… and/or through data extraction. Any data procured will be for a defined duration and available for re-use in MoD tools with potential controlled sharing within MoD and externally with MoD industry partners.”
The data required by the ministry will include companies’ annual accounts filings, as well as information on “financial trends and health indicators”, according to the text of the contract. The document adds that also needed will be “mandatory governance data, [such as] corporate hierarchies, associated people – directors, shareholders, PEPs (politically exposed persons) – legal status, [and] sanctions”.
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As well as these “mandatory” data categories, the contract lists a wider range of “desired” information the MoD hopes to be able to access via the framework.
This includes “environment social governance… cyber and physical security health and performance indicators, [operational] capacity and capability, typical activities/outputs and trends, mergers and acquisitions, intellectual property, news feeds, global events, [and] adverse media” related to firms in the defence supply chain.
As well as purchasing data via the framework, the MoD states that it may also “require access to supplier subject matter experts for training in the use of supplier tools and data topics to maximise potential use” of the information acquired.
While the framework is in effect, the six suppliers will provide services based on requirements set out via individual statements of work. This “will be billed on a fixed price basis”, according to the contract.
Annual statistics published by the MoD in October show that the ministry spent money with 9,600 separate suppliers during the 2023-24 financial year.
The core department spent a total of £37.6bn during the year, some 44% of which – £16.4bn – was via deals awarded without competition. This typically occurs when a public sector buyer believes it would be too complex, costly, or risky to consider moving away from an incumbent supplier on which it relies.
The MoD’s investment in intelligence on its suppliers comes near the end of a year in which the Department for Business and Trade led the rollout of a government-wide big-data tool intended to “map global supply chains and proactively mitigate risks”, while the Department for Work and Pensions invested £1m in deploying technology to enable real-time monitoring of hundreds of suppliers in various areas that could pose a risk to the organisation’s supply chain or security.
