Research and analysis

Quarterly qualifying defence contract statistics: Q1 2023/24

The SSRO has released its latest quarterly publication on key statistics relating to qualifying defence contracts (QDCs) and qualifying sub-contracts (QSCs)

Documents

Accompanying data book

Details

This bulletin is part of a regular published series of statistical reports, containing analysis of key QDC/QSC information, covering all contracts that became a QDC/QSC between 1 April 2015 and 30 June 2023.

The SSRO was notified of 590 contracts that became QDCs/QSCs between 1 April 2015 and 30 June 2023. Contractors have one month after the date the contract becomes a QDC/QSC to submit reports, and as of 31 July 2023 the SSRO had received contract reports for 560 contracts. This analysis is based on these 560 contracts, which comprised 479 QDCs and 81 QSCs.

The estimated total contract price was £86.5 billion for contracts that became QDCs/QSCs between 1 April 2015 and 30 June 2023. The average reported estimated contract profit rate across all QDCs/QSCs was 9.43 per cent. In the first three months of 2023/24, the SSRO has received contract reports for 13 new QDCs/QSCs, and an estimated total contract price of £0.36 billion was reported.

The analysis reflects the most recently reported contract data. All data is taken from reports submitted by the contractor for each QDC/QSC as indicated in the bulletin. The data may not reflect values at contract completion. One QDC in Q1 2023/24 has been excluded from the price statistics, and six QDCs/QSCs have been excluded from the profit rate statistics.

A new breakdown has been added to the quarterly bulletin series, showing the estimated contract price broken down by financial quarter.

The publication schedule for the next four quarterly bulletins is as follows:

Quarterly bulletin Date Published
Q2 2023/24 28 November 2023
Q3 2023/24 February 2024
Q4 2023/24 June 2024 – Annual Statistics
Q1 2024/25 August 2024

Updates to this page

Published 29 August 2023

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