Recommendation 22

The Department is working toward this by developing common standards, technology architecture and ways of working. The NAO reported that the Department has set up its governance and controls well, but ensuring compliance with these common standards and approaches across the Department is a substantial task and at an early stage.70 The Department told us it is pleased with the progress it is making and that a network of chief information officers, working to common standards, should have the effect it wants across the devolved model of Defence.71 The Department estimated that currently around 80% of its effort goes on these basic enablers that it needs to put in place.72 For example, the Department told us it is now cataloguing all its data and who is steward of that data.73 By 2025, the Department wants to have fixed these ‘enablers’, so that it can instead put 80% of its effort into using the data for advantage.74 We asked the Department for an example of what this meant. The Department spoke about its ‘R2D2’ programme, which aims to bring datasets together so that military planners can understand the readiness of the Armed Forces at the push of a button.75