The Defence Procurement Agency (DPA), was an Executive Agency

Executive agency

An executive agency, also known as a next-step agency, is a part of a government department that is treated as managerially and budgetarily separate in order to carry out some part of the executive functions of the United Kingdom government, Scottish Government, Welsh Assembly or Northern Ireland...

 of the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 Ministry of Defence

Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom)

The Ministry of Defence is the United Kingdom government department responsible for implementation of government defence policy and is the headquarters of the British Armed Forces....

 responsible for the acquisition of materiel

Materiel

Materiel is a term used in English to refer to the equipment and supplies in military and commercial supply chain management....

, equipment and services, for the British armed forces.

Led by the Chief of Defence Procurement

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...

, the Agency sourced equipment and services from its headquarters in Bristol

Bristol

Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...

.

History

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

Strategic Defence Review

The Strategic Defence Review was a British policy document produced by the Labour Government that came to power in 1997. Then Secretary of State for Defence, George Robertson, set out the initial defence policy of the new government, with a series of key decisions designed to enhance the United...

 of a specialised agency to succeed the MoD Procurement Executive

MoD Procurement Executive

The MoD Procurement Executive was the acquisition organisation of the Ministry of Defence.The Procurement Executive was established on 2 August 1971 as a single procurement agency for all three services with Derek Rayner as the first Chief of Defence Procurement...

. As of April 1, 2007 the Agency was merged with the Defence Logistics Organisation

Defence Logistics Organisation

The Defence Logistics Organisation 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 conduct of operations, through to recovery and recuperation...

 to form a new organisation called Defence Equipment and Support.