Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what recent assessment he has made of the work of the Centre for Defence Enterprise; and if he will make a statement. [121392]

Mr Dunne, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State [holding answer 18 September 2012]: The role of the Centre for Defence Enterprise (CDE) was reviewed as part of the consultation process for the White Paper, National Security through Technology, which was published on 1 February 2012 (Cm 8278). The White Paper committed to building on the CDE's success in providing efficient access to innovation, to broaden its remit to cover both the defence and security domains, and for CDE to provide more support to small and medium-sized enterprises in understanding how the Ministry of Defence operates, the development of routes to market for potential defence and security products, and to enhance exploitation mechanisms between CDE and defence suppliers.

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