Commencement Dates
175.Parts 1 to 3 are to come into force by commencement order and Part 4 comes into force on Royal Assent.
176.It is intended that Part 1 will not be commenced for at least three years after Royal Assent and only then if a decision is made that arrangements of a kind mentioned in section 1 offer better value for money than the existing way in which defence procurement is carried out.
177.Section 50(3) to (7) require a draft of any commencement order relating to Part 1 to be laid before, and approved by, a resolution of each House of Parliament before the Part can be brought into force. It also requires the Secretary of State to prepare and publish a report on the options for carrying out defence procurement before laying a draft order to bring Part 1 into force. That report would need to cover the arrangements of a kind mentioned in section 1 that the Secretary of State proposes to make, as well as any alternative options that the Secretary of State has considered. The report would also need to include any other information that the Secretary of State considers appropriate in order to make a comparison between the proposed arrangements and any alternative options. The alternative options covered by the report would need, at the least, to deal with the carrying out of defence procurement by the Secretary of State in the way in which it is carried out at the time of the report.
178.It is anticipated that individual provisions of Part 2 will have separate commencement dates, or be commenced on different days for different purposes, but that this Part will be commenced in full no later than 6 April 2015. It is anticipated that individual provisions of Part 3 may have separate commencement dates, or be commenced on different days for different purposes, but that this Part will be commenced in full by the end of December 2014.