Recommendations & Conclusions
26 items
2
Conclusion
32nd Report - The Future of the Equipme…
Accepted
Lessons learned from supporting Ukraine have made the Department examine its own decision-making and procurement processes, finding some of them in need of improvement. The Department has learned several lessons from its support for Ukraine. These include: the need for a mixture of high-end capabilities, such as Storm Shadow long-range …
Government response. The government details ongoing reforms to procurement processes, including tailoring acquisition, early industry engagement, driving pace through spiral acquisition, and establishing UK Defence Innovation (UKDI) on 1 July 2025 to implement lessons learned from supporting Ukraine.
HM Treasury
3
Conclusion
32nd Report - The Future of the Equipme…
Accepted
The Department’s defence reform programme sets out ambitious plans for improving defence procurement, but it is unclear how long it will take for these benefits to become fully embedded. In April 2025 the Department reorganised itself into four areas–the Department of State, a Military Strategic Headquarters, a National Armaments Director …
Government response. The government states it has brought teams together under the National Armaments Director (NAD) Group and implemented a new segmented approach to procurement. It is also developing key performance indicators and measures to track progress, with a target to agree …
HM Treasury
4
Conclusion
32nd Report - The Future of the Equipme…
Accepted
The Strategic Defence Review (the SDR) has set out the government’s high-level policy and capability ambitions, but the Department will need to complete further work to prioritise what it must do to achieve them. The government launched the SDR in July 2024 and 5 published it on 2 June 2025, …
Government response. The government states it will develop and publish a new Defence Investment Plan (DIP) in the autumn to convert the Strategic Defence Review’s ambitions into a deliverable plan. It commits to providing updates on progress to the Committee as requested.
HM Treasury
1
Conclusion
32nd Report - The Future of the Equipme…
Accepted
Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, which followed its annexation of Crimea in 2014, has contributed to making the world more unstable. In response, the UK government has confirmed in its Spending Review on 11 June that it will increase defence spending to 2.5% of gross domestic product …
Government response. The government detailed its ongoing support for Ukraine, including providing £4.5 billion in capability support this financial year, a landmark agreement to integrate battlefield technology into UK production lines, and sustained close relationships with Ukrainian counterparts.
HM Treasury
7
Conclusion
32nd Report - The Future of the Equipme…
Accepted
Through Taskforce Hirst, UK and Ukrainian industry are working together to design, build and support innovative and adaptable equipment. The Department said that both the UK and Ukraine are benefitting from this collaboration, including aligning how the defence industries in the two countries operate.9 The Department for Business and Trade …
Government response. The government accepts the committee's point, reiterating its commitment to supporting Ukraine, including £4.5 billion in capability support this financial year, and implementing long-term solutions from the Strategic Defence Review by partnering with Ukraine's defence industry.
HM Treasury
8
Conclusion
32nd Report - The Future of the Equipme…
Accepted
The Department said that there are two important but unheralded international groups working to assist Ukraine: the Ukraine defence contact group, and the conference of national armaments directors.11 The UK, Germany and Ukraine now lead the Ukraine defence contact group, which works with more than 40 allies to coordinate responses …
Government response. The government accepts the committee's point, reiterating its commitment to supporting Ukraine, including £4.5 billion in capability support this financial year, and implementing long-term solutions from the Strategic Defence Review by partnering with Ukraine's defence industry.
HM Treasury
9
Conclusion
32nd Report - The Future of the Equipme…
Accepted
The importance of allies, discussed in the previous section, is one of the lessons that the Department has learned from its support for Ukraine.16 The Department also highlighted several other lessons. First, for future conflicts armed forces will need a mixture of capabilities to be effective. For example, Storm Shadow …
Government response. The government agrees with the committee's observation and commits to fundamentally changing procurement processes by tailoring acquisition, engaging early with industry, adopting spiral acquisition, and has established UK Defence Innovation (UKDI) as of July 2025 to accelerate defence capability delivery.
HM Treasury
10
Conclusion
32nd Report - The Future of the Equipme…
Accepted
The Department said that autonomy is starting to really matter in warfare. The importance of having a mix of crewed and uncrewed platforms is now more apparent, such as by augmenting crewed helicopters with 11 Q 26 12 Qq 26, 44 and 45 13 Q 45 14 Q 26 15 …
Government response. The government agrees with the implicit recognition of the strategic importance of autonomy and AI in warfare, stating it has implemented lessons from Ukraine into procurement reforms and established UK Defence Innovation (UKDI).
HM Treasury
11
Conclusion
32nd Report - The Future of the Equipme…
Accepted
The advantage of having fewer systems has also been reinforced. The Department explained that with more systems, it is more complicated to manage the logistics and more difficult to sustain warfighting operations, which reduces the deterrent effect. As a result, the Department’s view was that you might get less value …
Government response. The government agrees with the committee's observation and commits to fundamentally changing procurement processes by tailoring acquisition, engaging early with industry, adopting spiral acquisition, and has established UK Defence Innovation (UKDI) as of July 2025 to accelerate defence capability delivery.
HM Treasury
12
Conclusion
32nd Report - The Future of the Equipme…
Accepted
The final lesson is the importance of having the industrial ability and capacity to sustain equipment if supply chains are disrupted. The Department said that this means making sure that the armed forces could continue to operate equipment, even if the UK’s allies have been disrupted for political or technical …
Government response. The government agrees with the committee's observation and commits to fundamentally changing procurement processes by tailoring acquisition, engaging early with industry, adopting spiral acquisition, and has established UK Defence Innovation (UKDI) as of July 2025 to accelerate defence capability delivery.
HM Treasury
13
Conclusion
32nd Report - The Future of the Equipme…
Accepted
The Department has responded to these lessons by splitting its procurement into three segments. The top segment consists of large strategic programmes that provide long-term platforms, such as submarines, ships and aeroplanes. The second segment is for developing capabilities and systems that the Department will deploy on those platforms. The …
Government response. The government agrees with the committee's observation, confirming it has already implemented a segmented approach to procurement based on lessons from Ukraine and has established UK Defence Innovation (UKDI) to drive faster, more agile capability delivery.
HM Treasury
14
Conclusion
32nd Report - The Future of the Equipme…
Accepted
The Department explained that for the third segment, it has developed a process through its support for Ukraine whereby it provides industry with a problem statement and within a month gets proposals back from industry. It requires at least three proposals but often gets more than that, many 18 Q …
Government response. The government agrees with the implicit recommendation to learn from Ukraine procurement methods, detailing ongoing reforms and the establishment of UK Defence Innovation (UKDI) on July 1, 2025, for faster capability delivery.
HM Treasury
15
Conclusion
32nd Report - The Future of the Equipme…
Accepted
The Department’s support for Ukraine has also led it to reconsider what level of financial and operational risk it is willing to tolerate. A higher risk appetite allows equipment to be delivered quicker as there is less checking for mistakes. Circumstances can affect the risk appetite – in a war …
Government response. The government agrees that lessons from Ukraine have prompted a reconsideration of risk appetite and procurement processes, confirming its ongoing reforms aim to streamline acquisition, increase pace, and empower agile decision-making.
HM Treasury
16
Conclusion
32nd Report - The Future of the Equipme…
Accepted
The speed of innovation seen in Ukraine has highlighted that quicker procurement is important to ensure that new equipment is not already out of date by the time the armed forces deploy it.27 The Department explained that this requires a change in mindset. It will become more common for programmes …
Government response. The government agrees with the committee's observation that quicker and more adaptable procurement is vital, confirming its ongoing reforms, including the NAD Group and segmented approach, are designed to address this.
HM Treasury
17
Conclusion
32nd Report - The Future of the Equipme…
Accepted
On 1 April 2025 the Department’s defence reform programme reorganised it into four areas – the Department of State, a Military Strategic Headquarters, a National Armaments Director (NAD) Group and Defence Nuclear.29 The Department anticipates that defence reform will give the NAD significantly more control over the end-to-end acquisition process …
Government response. The government agrees with the committee's observation regarding the departmental reorganisation and the NAD Group's role, confirming its ongoing procurement reforms build on this structure to enhance collaboration and acquisition processes.
HM Treasury
18
Conclusion
32nd Report - The Future of the Equipme…
Accepted
The Department intends to build on procurement reforms begun under the previous government to procure faster. It has identified that the biggest problem is that it takes too long to get programmes on contract.31 24 Qq 22 and 40 25 Qq 42 and 43 26 Q 27 27 Qq 40 …
Government response. The government confirms its ongoing procurement reforms are designed to reduce programme and contract award times, with progress expected by June 2026, and will establish key performance indicators within three months.
HM Treasury
19
Conclusion
32nd Report - The Future of the Equipme…
Accepted
The Department has set the five-year target for programme length to stop the armed forces over-specifying their requirements.34 It said that the troubled Ajax programme, for example, had been tremendously over-specified.35 The Department anticipates it can achieve this target by involving industry in the procurement process much earlier.36 Instead of …
Government response. The government confirms it is already implementing procurement reforms, including the NAD Group and a new segmented approach, to achieve a five-year programme length target by June 2026, and will agree key performance indicators within three months.
HM Treasury
20
Conclusion
32nd Report - The Future of the Equipme…
Accepted
However, 2025–26 is a transitional year as the changes bed in. The Department has started to roll out new processes so that programmes beginning this year adhere to the faster timeframes. The Department’s senior leadership team will monitor progress using a refreshed dashboard.39 However, the Department said it will take …
Government response. The government accepts the committee's point and will develop a new Defence Investment Plan (DIP) to implement the Strategic Defence Review's recommendations, publishing the plan in autumn 2025 and providing updates.
HM Treasury
21
Conclusion
32nd Report - The Future of the Equipme…
Accepted
The government launched the Strategic Defence Review (the SDR) in July 2024 and said it would publish it in the first half of 2025.41 The Department told us that the SDR would try to balance ambition and resource, but also chart the direction needed to respond to the current geopolitical …
Government response. The government accepts the committee's point and will develop a new Defence Investment Plan (DIP) to implement the Strategic Defence Review's recommendations, publishing the plan in autumn 2025 and providing updates.
HM Treasury
22
Conclusion
32nd Report - The Future of the Equipme…
Accepted
At our evidence session the Department had reiterated the importance of NATO to its strategic outlook and noted that one theme of the SDR’s terms of reference is thinking ‘NATO-first’, when considering policy, capability requirements and procurement .43 The Department said that NATO is now stronger following recent geopolitical developments: …
Government response. The government confirms its "NATO-first" strategic outlook and states it has endorsed the Strategic Defence Review's vision and recommendations, which will be implemented via a new Defence Investment Plan published in Autumn 2025.
HM Treasury
23
Conclusion
32nd Report - The Future of the Equipme…
Accepted
The Department said that the SDR would build upon and develop the current equipment programme. The Department described the existing programme as “ambitious” and an “extraordinary list” of “massive programmes” which includes renewing the nuclear warhead, spending £40 billion to reequip the Army, and the long-term investment in a sixth-generation …
Government response. The government confirms its endorsement of the Strategic Defence Review (SDR) and commits to developing a new Defence Investment Plan (DIP) by Autumn 2025 to implement its recommendations, which will build upon and strengthen the current equipment programme.
HM Treasury
25
Conclusion
32nd Report - The Future of the Equipme…
Accepted
The Department published an Equipment Plan (the Plan) each year from 2012 to 2022, setting out its 10-year spending plans for equipment procurement and support projects. The Department’s aim was to produce a reliable assessment of the affordability of its equipment programme, and to demonstrate to Parliament how it intended …
Government response. The government commits to publishing a new Defence Investment Plan (DIP) in Autumn 2025, which will replace the previous Equipment Plan and allow thorough scrutiny of the department's spending and procurement plans.
HM Treasury
26
Conclusion
32nd Report - The Future of the Equipme…
Accepted
In July 2023, the Department’s Permanent Secretary wrote to the Chair of the previous Public Accounts Committee to say that it would not provide a full Plan that year as it needed “to work through the direction from the 46 Q 5 47 Public Accounts Committee, Oral Evidence: Defence equipment …
Government response. The government commits to publishing a new Defence Investment Plan (DIP) in Autumn 2025, which will be affordable and allow thorough scrutiny of spending, implicitly addressing past issues with the Equipment Plan's affordability.
HM Treasury
27
Conclusion
32nd Report - The Future of the Equipme…
Accepted
In November 2024, the Minister for Defence Procurement & Industry wrote to the Chair to say that the Department would not publish a Plan for 2024 because “it would not provide an accurate reflection of this Government’s spending plans and I do not believe it would provide a useful means …
Government response. The government agrees with the implicit recommendation, committing to publish the Defence Investment Plan (DIP) in Autumn 2025 to allow for thorough scrutiny of the department’s evolving spending plans.
HM Treasury
28
Recommendation
32nd Report - The Future of the Equipme…
Accepted
We held this inquiry in the sincere hope that by its end we would have heard clear proposals from the Department as to how this Committee, and by extension Parliament, would be able to scrutinise annually the crucial issue of its forward spending plans.58 The Department acknowledged that it works …
Government response. The government agrees to provide clear proposals for parliamentary scrutiny of its spending plans, committing to publish the Defence Investment Plan (DIP) in Autumn 2025, which will allow thorough scrutiny of the department's evolving spending.
HM Treasury
29
Recommendation
32nd Report - The Future of the Equipme…
Accepted
At the end of our evidence session, we asked the Department to write to us setting out a satisfactory and precise methodology for providing Parliament with an update on its spending plans at least once a year.62 The Permanent Secretary has since written to us, but yet again he has …
Government response. The government accepts the recommendation, committing to publish the Defence Investment Plan (DIP) in Autumn 2025, which will provide a framework for Parliament to scrutinise the department's evolving spending plans.
HM Treasury