MOD Defence Conditions Guide

Introduction

The MOD Defence Conditions Guide [251KB PDF] is a quick reference guide to the current MOD defence conditions (DEFCON) and their associated defence forms (DEFFORM).

Acquisition teams should familiarise themselves with the text of the appropriate DEFCON and read the relevant topic guidance before using the DEFCONs.

The advice of the acquisition team Senior Commercial Officer (SCO) or Mentor should be sought if there is any doubt as to use or interpretation.

DEFCON Compliance

It is recommended that regular compliance checks are made by Commercial Officers to ensure that both the Contractor and the MOD are meeting their obligations under the DEFCONs specified in a contract.

The DEFCON Compliance Matrix captures the contractual compliance requirements that are embedded in DEFCONs and provides an easy to use tool to enable such checking to take place. For ASPECT Contract Management users, the tool will generate a matrix for your contract as part of the contract creation process. For other Commercial Officers, the Compliance Matrix [176KB XLS] is available as a download.

Amendments

Only in exceptional circumstances should the text of DEFCONs be varied to meet the particular needs of a requirement. When this occurs, the text of the replacement condition should be reproduced in full and no reference made to the original DEFCON. Commercial officers should seek advice from the policy sponsor (via the Commercial Policy Help Desk) before amending DEFCONs.

If you have any queries on the DEFCONs, please contact the Commercial Policy Help Desk..

Change History

1 September 2010: Point of Contact changed to the Commercial Policy Help Desk.
1 August 2010: Entry for DEFCON 681 amended to include circumstances where the DEFCON must not be applied.
1 May 2010: Updated to reflect the change of email address and contact numbers for DSDA Bicester.
1 April 2010: Entries for DEFCON 21 and 609 updated to make Commercial Officers aware that they can use the two DEFCONs in the same contract provided they do not apply them to the same records.
1 February 2010: Minor editorial changes to reflect the availability of DEFCON 110 and 110AL in electronic format and new contact numbers for DSDA.
1 May 2009: Change of Sponsor name.
1 April 2009: New entries for DEFCONs 522JA and 653A.
1 September 2008: Updated entries for DEFCONs 15, 16, 21, 91 and 600
1 August 2008: Updated to include Sponsor details.
1 July 2008: Updated entry for DEFCONs 5J and 129J
1 June 2008: Updated entry for DEFCON 502 and new contact information for obtaining hard copy DEFCONS.
1 May 2008: Updated entries for DEFCON 513 and 607.
1 March 2008: Updated entry for DEFCON 656 - change in threshold.
1 May 2007: Updated entry for DEFCON 530.
1 March 2007: Updated entry for DEFCON 68.
1 December 2006: Updated entry against DEFCON 528 and the inclusion of Interim DEFCON 600.
1 August 2006: Amended to include Compliance paragraph and a downloadable Compliance Matrix.