Recommendation 23

We asked the Department what it was doing to work more closely domestically and with international partners, such as NATO.76 The Department is creating shared architectures to help it work more closely and share data securely with other parts of government, including at higher security classifications, and explained that the COVID-19 pandemic 65 Qq 45–46 66 Q 12 67 Qq 95–96; C&AG’s Report, para 12; TDS0004 68 C&AG’s Report, para 10 69 Ministry of Defence, digital strategy for Defence: Delivering the backbone and unleashing the power of Defence’s data, April 2021 70 C&AG’s Report, para 15 71 Q 20 72 Q 18 73 Q 52 74 Q 18 75 Qq 53–55 76 Qq 34–44 16 The Defence digital strategy sped up the use of collaboration software.77 We wanted to know what discussions the Ministry of Defence has with other departments about using digital technology to work more closely, and if it has thought about where this might be most important, such as in crisis response.78 The Department felt that the technology to respond in a coordinated way to a domestic crisis exists now, but policy and seniors across government need to come together to solve those problems.79 The Department pointed to how it is taking part in the Cabinet Office’s central digital strategy and its digital and data board, which is bringing government together.80 Internationally, the Department told us it wants to take part in emerging conversations within NATO about data interoperability and common architectures.81 77 Q 34; Ministry of Defence, digital strategy for Defence: Delivering the backbone and unleashing the power of Defence’s data, April 2021 78 Qq 34–36, 41–43 79 Q 36 80 Q 42 81 Q 35 The Defence digital strategy 17