Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 6
6
Accepted
The Department is not yet able to share and exploit data across the Armed Forces...
Recommendation
The Department is not yet able to share and exploit data across the Armed Forces and with partners effectively enough. Recent events including the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine show the importance of responding in a nationally and internationally integrated way. As the character of warfare changes, the Department needs to better integrate its operations and increase its partnering with other government departments, industry, academia and international allies. This was starkly illustrated by the Chief Information Officer admitting digital technology could be a limiting factor in the optional operation of Ajax and Morpheus. How the Department will update its digital systems fast enough so that the operational capacity of any pieces of equipment will not be hampered by the lack of digital systems remains unclear. It is making progress toward this by building a common architecture and set of rules that the whole Department must follow. This could support working more closely with partners and sharing data securely, including at higher security classifications. However, the Department has not yet catalogued all its data and adoption of these common standards is at an early stage. The Department also must work in hostile environments including, for example, at sea with limited connectivity, or where adversaries may be trying to undermine its security or effectiveness. The Department estimates that currently 80% of its effort is on the fundamental technology, people and processes it needs to share data effectively. By 2025, the Department wants 80% of its effort to be on exploiting this data for benefit. For example, the Department is starting to gather data on equipment and people automatically for military planners to better assess its readiness to respond. Recommendation: The Department should set out in its April 2023 update to the digital strategy, how it will measure its progress in creating the ‘backbone’ and track its balance of effort between data enabl
Government Response Summary
The government agrees and states that delivering the Digital Backbone by 2025 is key, progress is being tracked and measured through the Strategy Delivery Plan, with dedicated resource in place to measure specific key performance indicators.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. accelerating digital transformation across Defence. This is a key component in progressively shifting more of the balance onto exploitation, accompanied by a maturation of the digital function. Establishment of the Integrated Design Authority in Strategic Command will further help to break down and remove siloes whilst driving a consistent approach across Defence. Delivering the Digital Backbone by 2025 is key to this and progress is being tracked and measured through the Strategy Delivery Plan, with dedicated resource in place to measure specific key performance indicators. Treasury Minutes Archive1 Treasury Minutes are the government’s response to reports from the Committee of Public Accounts. Treasury Minutes are Command Papers laid in Parliament. Session 2022-23 Committee Recommendations: 243 Recommendations agreed: 219 (90%) Recommendations disagreed: 24 Publication Date PAC Reports Ref Number July 2022 Government response to PAC reports 1, 3 & 10 CP 722 August 2022 Government response to PAC reports 2, 4-8 CP 708 September 2022 Government response to PAC reports 9, 13-16 CP 745 November 2022 Government response to PAC reports 11, 12, 17 CP 755 December 2022 Government response to PAC reports 18-22 CP 774 January 2023 Government response to PAC reports 23-26 CP 781 February 2023 Government response to PAC reports 27-31 CP 802 March 2023 Government response to PAC reports 32-36 CP 828 Session 2021-22 Committee Recommendations: 362 Recommendations agreed: 333 (92%) Recommendations disagreed: 29 Publication Date PAC Reports Ref Number August 2021 Government response to PAC reports 1-6 CP 510 September 2021 Government response to PAC reports 8-11 CP 520 November 2021 Government response to PAC reports 7,13-16 (and TM2 BBC) CP 550 December 2021 Government response to PAC reports 12, 17-21 CP 583 January 2022 Government response to PAC reports 22-26 CP 603 February 2022 Government response to PAC reports 27-31 CP 631 April 2022 Government response to PAC reports 32-35 CP 649 April 2022 Government response to PAC reports 36-42 CP 667 July 2022 Government response to PAC reports 49-52 CP 722 Session 2019-21 Committee Recommendations: 233 Recommendations agreed: 208 (89%) Recommendations disagreed: 25 Publication Date PAC Reports Ref Number July 2020 Government responses to PAC reports 1-6 CP 270 September 2020 Government responses to PAC reports 7-13 CP 291 November 2020 Government responses to PAC reports 14-17 and 19 CP 316 January 2021 Government responses to PAC reports 18, 20-24 CP 363 February 2021 Government responses to PAC reports 25-29 CP 376 1 List of Treasury Minutes responses for Sessions 2010-15 are annexed in the government’s response to PAC Report 52 Publication Date PAC Reports Ref Number February 2021 Government responses to PAC reports 30-34 CP 389 March 2021 Government responses to PAC reports 35-39 CP 409 April 2021 Government responses to PAC reports 40- 44 CP 420 May 2021 Government responses to PAC reports 45-51 CP 434 June 2021 Government responses to PAC reports 52-56 CP 456 Session 2019 Committee Recommendations: 11 Recommendations agreed: 11 (100%) Recommendations disagreed: 0 Publication Date PAC Reports Ref Number January 2020 Government response to PAC report [112-119] 1 and 2 CP 210 Session 2017-19 Committee Recommendations: 747 Recommendations agreed: 675 (90%) Recommendations disagreed: 72 (10%) Publication Date PAC Reports Ref Number December 2017 Government response to PAC report 1 Cm 9549 January 2018 Government responses to PAC reports 2 and 3 Cm 9565 March 2018 Government responses to PAC reports 4-11 Cm 9575 March 2018 Government responses to PAC reports 12-19 Cm 9596 May 2018 Government responses to PAC reports 20-30 Cm 9618 June 2018 Government responses to PAC reports 31-37 Cm 9643 July 2018 Government responses to PAC reports 38-42 Cm 9667 October 2018 Government responses to PAC reports 43-58 Cm 9702 December 2018 Government responses to PAC reports 59-63 Cm 9740 January 2019 Government responses to PAC reports 64-68 CP 18 March 2019 Government responses to PAC reports 69-71 CP 56 April 2019 Government responses to PAC reports 72-77 CP 79 May 2019 Government responses to PAC reports 78-81 and 83-85 CP 97 June 2019 Government responses to PAC reports 82, 86-92 CP 113 July 2019 Government responses to PAC reports 93-94 and 96-98 CP 151 October 2019 Government responses to PAC reports 95, 99-111 CP 176 January 2020 Government response to PAC reports 112-119 [1 and 2] CP 210 Session 2016-17 Committee Recommendations: 393 Recommendations agreed: 356 (91%) Recommendations disagreed: 37 (9%) Publication Date PAC Reports Ref Number November 2016 Government responses to PAC reports 1-13 Cm 9351 December 2016 Government responses to PAC reports 14-21 Cm 9389 February 2017 Government responses to PAC reports 22-25 and 28 Cm 9413 March 2017 Government responses to PAC reports 26-27 and 29-34 Cm 9429 March 2017 Governmen