Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 8
8
In its digital strategy, the Department sets itself three strategic outcomes to achieve.
Conclusion
In its digital strategy, the Department sets itself three strategic outcomes to achieve. By 2025 it wants to share data seamlessly, use it effectively to gain advantage, and develop a 7 C&AG’s Report, para 2 8 Q 13 9 Ministry of Defence, digital strategy for Defence: Delivering the backbone and unleashing the power of Defence’s data, April 2021 10 Q 52 11 Q 66–69 12 Qq 12–13, 66–68; TDS0004 13 C&AG’s Report, para 1.13 14 Qq 57–60 15 Q 52 16 Q 60 17 Qq 19–20 10 The Defence digital strategy skilled and empowered cadre of digital specialists.18 The NAO reported that achieving this by 2025 is ambitious, given the scale of the challenge and persistent barriers to change. We got a sense of this scale as we discussed the Department’s portfolio of over 90 projects and major programmes, its large legacy IT estate, and wide-ranging specialist skills shortages. Therefore, we asked the Department if it will successfully achieve its strategy by 2025. The Department told us that it hopes it will be successful, but it may take longer if it cannot recruit the skilled people it needs.19