Research and analysis

Annual qualifying defence contract statistics: 2021/22

The annual statistics bulletin is part of a regular published series of statistical reports, containing analysis of key QDC/QSC information.

Documents

Accompanying data book

Details

This annual publication includes analysis of all contracts that became a QDC/QSC between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2022, and data for Quarter 4 2021/22 within the quarterly series of bulletins. Data is also presented from April 2015, when the first QDC was entered into.

The SSRO was notified of 467 contracts that became QDCs/QSCs by 31 March 2022. Contractors have one month after the date the contract becomes a QDC/QSC to submit reports and this analysis is based on 444 contracts for which the SSRO had received contract reports by 30 April 2022. These 444 contracts are comprised of 379 QDCs and 65 QSCs. The bulletin includes statistics on the outturn costs and profits of 65 contracts which have now completed.

For contracts that became QDCs/QSCs in 2021/22, the estimated total contract price of QDCs/QSCs was £8.1 billion, and £66.1 billion for all QDCs/QSCs across all years. Of these, £59.1 billion worth of contracts are still active, with £7.0 billion (across 65 contracts) now completed. The mean estimated contract profit rate of QDCs/QSCs was 9.54 per cent for QDCs/QSCs in 2021/22.

Please see the SSRO Annual Compliance Report 2021, published each autumn, for details of the timeliness and quality of reports submitted to the SSRO’s Defence Contract Analysis and Reporting System (DefCARS) by defence contractors.

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

Quarterly bulletin Date Published
Q1 2022/23 30 August 2022
Q2 2022/23 November 2022
Q3 2022/23 February 2023
Q4 2022/23 Annual Statistics – June 2023
Published 23 June 2022