Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 7
Forty-Eighth Report - MoD Equipment Plan 2022–2032
Published 19 Apr 2023
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee MoD Equipment Plan 2022-2032 All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
In response to Russia’s invasion, the Government has decided to review its 2021 Integrated Review. This work has been led by the Cabinet Office. The Government published its Integrated Review Refresh 2023 in March 2023.15 The Department now expects to publish its own refreshed plans in a new Defence Command Paper, which in turn will have implications for its Equipment Plan.16 The Department anticipated that the core of the Equipment Plan would still hold good but that there would be some noticeable changes to reflect lessons from Ukraine and other recent announcements, such as the combat air partnership with Japan and Italy. It also thought that further decisions, such as on the AUKUS partnership with the United States of America and Australia announced in March 2023, and on the programme to replace the nuclear warhead, would be reflected in the 2023 or 2024 planning rounds.17 The Department cautioned it would take time to firm up Integrated Review plans and address the challenges of deliverability.18
From: Public Accounts Committee, Forty-Eighth Report - MoD Equipment Plan 2022–2032 (HC 731), 19 April 2023
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 21 July 2023 (deadline 19 June 2023).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government disagrees with the Committee's recommendation to publish a timelier Equipment Plan report, and agrees with its recommendations on the Integrated Review refresh, delivery speed, uncertainty, affordability and supply chains.
- On publishing a timelier Equipment Plan report, the government disagrees: the department "does not plan to publish a full equipment plan" while it adapts the plan to the Integrated Review Refresh and manages inflation, but "will write to the Committee with an update".
- It agrees that capability requirements arising from the Integrated Review refresh should be set out to HM Treasury, with a target implementation date of Summer 2023 (Defence Command Paper Update) and Winter 2023 (update to the Committee).
- On delivery speed, it agrees and recognises "the need to balance risk with the speed of capability delivery", noting there "may be scope to take more risk" but "not in every case"; it will write to the Committee by December 2023.
- It agrees to reassess affordability by September 2023, and to provide by December 2023 an assessment of the key sources of uncertainty and risk in the forward plan.