The Defence Procurement Agency (DPA), was an

Executive Agency An executive agency is a part of a government department that is treated as managerially and budgetarily separate, to carry out some part of the executive functions of the United Kingdom government, Scottish Government, Welsh Government or N ...

of the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

Ministry of Defence responsible for the acquisition of

materiel Materiel (; ) refers to supplies, equipment, and weapons in military supply-chain management, and typically supplies and equipment in a commercial supply chain context. In a military context, the term ''materiel'' refers either to the specif ...

, equipment and services, for the British armed forces. Led by the

Chief of Defence Procurement The Chief of Defence Procurement was a senior post in the British Ministry of Defence. The post-holder was Chief Executive of the MoD Procurement Executive from 1971 until 1999 and then Chief Executive of the Defence Procurement Agency until 2007. I ...

, the Agency sourced equipment and services from its headquarters in

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

History

The Defence Procurement Agency was established on 1 April 1999, after the announcement in the

Strategic Defence Review The Strategic Defence Review (SDR) was a British policy document produced in July 1998 by the Labour Government that had gained power a year previously. Then Secretary of State for Defence, George Robertson, set out the initial defence policy of ...

of a specialised agency to succeed the

MoD Procurement Executive The MoD Procurement Executive was the acquisition organisation of the Ministry of Defence. The Procurement Executive (widely known as ''PE'') was established on 2 August 1971 as a single procurement agency for all three services with Derek Rayner ...

. From 1 April 2007 the agency was merged with the

Defence Logistics Organisation The Defence Logistics Organisation (DLO) was a key element of the UK Ministry of Defence, responsible for supporting the armed forces throughout the various stages of an operation or exercise; from training, deployment, in-theatre training and ...

to form a new organisation called

Defence Equipment and Support Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) is a trading entity and joint-defence organisation within the UK Ministry of Defence. It began operating on 2 April 2007, following the merger of the MoD's Defence Procurement Agency and the Defence Logistics ...

References

{{EngvarB, date=April 2020 1999 establishments in the United Kingdom 2007 disestablishments in the United Kingdom United Kingdom defence procurement Defunct executive agencies of the United Kingdom government Government agencies established in 1999 Government agencies disestablished in 2007 Defence agencies of the United Kingdom