A Labour peer at the centre of the "cash for laws" row is facing fresh controversy over his work for one of the world's biggest defence companies.

The Sunday Herald has established that around half the parliamentary questions tabled by Lord Moonie, a close friend of prime minister Gordon Brown, relate to areas of commercial interest to US-based Northrop Grumman Corporation.

Since July 2007, Moonie has been retained as a "non-parliamentary" consultant to one of the company's major American divisions, Northrop Grumman IT.

Last week, the former defence minister and Kirkcaldy MP was accused of being one of four Labour lords ready to accept money in return for helping amend legislation. Moonie, 61, said he would make introductions in return for £30,000 a year.

Now an investigation by this newspaper has found that 23 of the 46 written questions Moonie has had answered by the government in the Lords relate to defence work connected to Northrop Grumman Corp. These include the F35 joint strike fighter, the Eurofighter Typhoon, the Airbus A400M cargo plane, the Navy's Type 45 destroyer programme, and unmanned aerial drones for spying and bombing.

Moonie also asked a question about the Sentry Awacs early-warning aircraft. In 2005 Northrop Grumman won a £665 million contract to maintain and support the Royal Air Force's Awacs fleet over 20 years.

Moonie was ennobled in 2005 but did not ask any parliamentary questions in his first three years as a peer, according to Hansard. But since mid-2008 he has asked almost 50, all on defence issues.

Angus MacNeil, the Nationalist MP for the Western Isles, said "The coincidences do not look good. I would like to think there was no motivation when Lord Moonie asked these questions, and I am sure he will be able to tell us why he didn't ask any questions before he worked for this company."

Moonie also faces questions about his links to a rogue surveyor whose company pays him up to £40,000 a year for "parliamentary lobbying". George Henderson, 55, from Edinburgh, was expelled from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors in January 2006. He was guilty of three charges, including failing to notify them when his indemnity insurance had expired.

Moonie is employed by Americium Developments (Edinburgh) Ltd, which Henderson runs with Glenrothes businessman Richard Nawrot. The company, which is overdue filing its accounts at Companies House, had only £1371 in the bank in January 2007. It claimed assets of £2,123,409, of which £2.1m was attributed to a "holistic concept for the delivery of complex public and private facilities", priced by the directors.

The Sunday Herald can also reveal the closeness of Moonie's links to Gordon Brown and Chancellor Alistair Darling. The peer, who entered the Lords after making way for Brown to be the Labour candidate in Kirkcaldy during boundary changes, bought Brown's flat in Kennington, south London. He allowed Darling to move into the property as his co-tenant between 2003 and 2006, according to the electoral roll.

Ken Beedle, director of international communications for Northrop Grumman, said: "Lord Moonie is retained as a consultant through Northrop Grumman IT Inc in the US. The role of the strategic advisory board, including Lord Moonie, is strictly limited to the provision of internal advice to Northrop Grumman IT in relation to its business in the UK.

"Members of the strategic advisory board are expressly prohibited from contacting, directly or indirectly, any public or government officials on our behalf and promoting or marketing any products or services of Northrop Grumman."

Moonie did not return calls yesterday. A Labour spokesman declined to comment.

An in-depth look...

It may not be a household name in the UK, but Northrop Grumman is one of the world's biggest defence and technology companies, valued at $32 billion and with 120,000 employees, In its own words, "the scope of Northrop Grumman's work is vast".

It includes missile defence systems, satellites, spacecraft, ship-building, lasers, longe-range bomber aircraft, homeland security, and civilian IT systems.

In the past decade, it has spent more than $125million lobbying the US Congress and government agencies, the highest spending of any defence company.

In 2006, conscious that the US was becoming a "mature market", Northrop Grumman created its first corporate office in Britain, Northrop Grumman UK Ltd, to help its growth "in the UK defense, security, civil government and commercial sectors".

Graham Thornton, the managing director of NG UK, told Janes Defence Weekly that the UK operation was about more than UK sales.

The country would be a "springboard for international business", and "base camp one" in Europe.

In July 2005, Lewis Moonie, a former defence minister and Labour MP for Kirkcaldy, was ennobled as Baron Moonie of Bennochy in Fife.

The title was widely seen as a reward for Moonie helping his old friend, the then Chancellor Gordon Brown.

By stepping down as an MP during a review of parliamentary boundaries, Moonie ensured Brown would land the new Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath seat.

According to his register of interests, Lord Moonie became a member of the "advisory board" to Northrop Grumman IT in July 2007.

The entry is ambiguous.

There is a UK-registered Northrop Grumman Information Technology Ltd in Birmingham with a turnover of around £20m a year.

However the parent company confirmed this weekend that Moonie is "retained as a consultant through Northrop Grumman IT Inc in the US".

One of eight divisional headquarters in the US, the Virginia-based member of the Northrop empire has annual sales of $4.5billion.

In the UK, Northrop Grumman's main work is maintaining the UK's airborne early warning AWACS system under a 20-year, £665million contract signed in 2005.

It also provides civilian security systems, such as the biometric IDENT1 system for the police.

However defence is Northrop's mainstay, and it attracts military heavyweights to its board.

In October 2007, Air Chief Marshal Sir Joe French, former Commander-in-Chief of Strike Command, became a member of its "IT Strategic Advisory Board".

According to his parliamentary register of interest, former Nato secretary general Lord Robertson is also the remunerated chairman of the "Northrop Grumman Information Technology United Kingdom Senior Advisory Board". There is no suggestion that he has been in any way involved in accepting money in return for helping amend legislation Moonie was named last week as one of four peers who allegedly agreed to help amend legislation for cash.

Now, following a Sunday Herald investigation, Moonie is facing further questions about his lucrative outside interests.

Although a "non-parliamentary consultant" for Northrop Grumman IT, Moonie, who chose not to table a single written question for three years in the Lords, has tabled 46 since last autumn, all on defence.

A great many relate directly to Northrop Grumman projects and specialisms.

AWACS In 2005, Northrop Grumman won the £665million MoD contract to provide maintenance and support services for the Sentry Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft.

James O'Neill, corporate vice president and president of Northrop Grumman's Information Technology (IT) sector, said at the time: "This contract provides an excellent opportunity for Northrop Grumman, in partnership with the United Kingdom, to apply our supply-chain management expertise to help support the Royal Air Force's AWACS modernization programme."

The contract is "fixed price" for the first five years, and "target cost incentive" for the remaining fifteen.

In one of his detailed questons, Moonie asked the government about the "impact on capability of reducing aircrew availability on the Sentry AWACS aircraft".

He also wanted to know about the "annual cost saving this will achieve".

In its response, the government said financial provision for aircrew had been "reprofiled", and supplied revised figures up to 2011-12.

A400M Although the major partner is Dutch-based aerospace giant EADS, Northrop Grumman also has a role in the A400M, the military transport airbus designed to replace the aging C-130 Hercules.

Last July the company won a $28m contract to supply CEESIM electronic warfare defences for the A400M.

Moonie asked about the impact of "delays in the A400M programme" and the original and revised price per aircraft.

The government replied in November that "the contracted unit price of the A400M aircraft ... is commercially sensitive".

Northrop's CEESIM system is also used to support the Typhoon, Nimrod and AWACs aircraft, as well as the Apache helicoper - all the subject of Moonie questions.

Last April, Northrop said it "expects expansion potential" for CEESIM for the UK's Airborne Stand-Off Radar system (ASTOR).

Moonie asked "when the ASTOR surveillance system will be available for operational employment".

Moonie also asked "what progress is being made on the HELIX programme to upgrade aircraft electronic surveillance" on the RAF Nimrod.

In 2007, Northrop was beaten in a three-way contest to deliver the £400m HELIX upgrade.

UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLES (UAVs) Five of the 46 written questions Moonie asked were about Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), remote controlled drones used for surveillance and bombing.

UAVs are a lucrative part of Northrop Grumman's business.

Only last week, the US Air Force awarded the firm a $276 million contract for its RQ-4 Global Hawk system, a long-range, high-altitude reconnaissance drone.

The company has been promoting the model for several years in Europe, winning orders in Germany, although the UK has yet to buy any.

In November, Moonie received an answer to a question about how many UK personnel were trained to pilot UAVs.

In another, Moonie asked what plans the government had for "buying Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles beyond those currently in service, and what representations have been made by United Kingdom industry to supply UAVs which fulfill a similar role."

Last April, the US Air Force awarded a $55m contract to Northrop to fit improved electronic sensors to both the Reaper and its cousin the Predator.

In two questions, Moonie asked specifically about the Watchkeeper UAV, a subject close to Northrop's heart.

In 2004, Northrop lost out on an £800million contract in a two-horse race with Thales to supply the UK with the Watchkeeper system.

The system is still being tested and is not due to be in operation until 2010.

Moonie asked about the effect of fitting extra fuel tanks to extend the range of Watchkeeper, and the additional "cost of the programme and the cost per unmanned vehicle".

Moonie also asked how miniature short-range "Desert Hawk" systems, made by Northrop Grumman's rival Lockheed Martin, were in service or being procured, and how many had been "damaged beyond repair".

Finally, Moonie asked if the UK government had evaluated "lighter-than-air vehicles" for military and security use - jargon for airships.

Since at least 2005, Northrop has been developing "lighter than air vehicles that could provide persistent surveillance of terrorist activities" in Iraq and elsewhere.

F-35s Northrop Grumman is a key part of the consortium to provide the UK and US with F-35 joint strike fighters (JSF).

Dubbed the biggest military programme in history, the aircraft are intended to replace ageing jets such as the F-16, F-18 and the Harrier.

The UK government, which has "level one" partner status on the £200bn project, was intending to purchase 150 of the fighters.

However, Mod officials are now considering whether the UK should scale back its order.

Againt this backdrop of uncertainty, Moonie tabled four questions on F-35s in the Lords at the tail end of last year.

His first question, on contractor charges for the F-35 programme, discovered a decision on three aircraft was due this month.

MoD Minister Baroness Taylor also told him the government was pursuing an "incremental acquisition strategy" on the JSF.

Another question, answered on November 11, asked about "discussions" with US officials and industry on "reductions in uptake of F-35 aeroplanes" by the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy.

On the same day, Lord Moonie received an answer to a question on whether the government had considered a briefing by the RAND Corporation on F-35 related issues.

Finally, Moonie asked which "United Kingdom mandated systems would be fitted to F-35 aircraft" and the additonal costs of "qualifying such equipment" .

TYPE 45 WARSHIPS Northrop is contracted to supply gas tubines for the UK's six new "Type 45" destroyers, which will be built on the Clyde.

In November, Moonie received an answer to a question on when each Type 45 warship would be "scheduled for refit or extended maintenance", and how long was expedcted to elapse in the service life of each T45 between each scheduled period of refit or extended maintenance".

A week later, he also received a detailed answer from the government to his question on "anticipated intervals for major refits of surface warships".

The answer read: "The time between refits (periods of deep maintenance) for major surface warships (including aircraft carriers, Type 42 Destroyers and Type 22 and 23 Frigates), minor surface warships (including mine countermeasure vessels and survey vessels) and most Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessels is generally in excess of four years."

MINE RESISTANT VEHICLES In January 2008, Northrop announced it was making a joint bid for the $40 billion contract to replace the US military's iconic Humvee.

Its Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV), which is required to be the battlefield standard for 30 years, would be "more mobile and maneuvrable than the mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicle, or MRAP, being widely deployed in Iraq", it said.

In August, Northrop said tests had proved its "enhanced, light-weight JLTV suspension to be higher performing than what is available to the industry today".

Around this time, and as the US was sifting applicants, Moonie asked the UK government for details of the "limitations in off-road mobility in mine-resistant vechicles deployed in Iraq as a result of size and weight".

A week after he received his answer on October 21, the US military announced it had chosen three companies for the demonstration phase of the JLTV.

Northrop was cut out the deal, and has now asked for a formal review of the decision.

APACHE HELICOPTERS Since 1995, Northrop Grumman has been part of the GKN Westland team that won the contract to provide the UK with 67 Apache helicopters.

The same company is also part of a joint venture with rival defence firm Lockheed Martin to deliver the radar system for the all-weather, day-night military attack helicopters.

Moonie asked the government "what capability upgrades are being considered for Apache attack helicopters currently in service".

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