Recommendation 13

The Department told us that, thanks to the funding increase in the Spending Review and the Integrated Review process, it thinks the Plan is now affordable, although there are financial and capability risks in its delivery.27 The Department also told us that it had a clearer strategy than before, with a Plan whose cost is less over 10 years than its budget.28 It acknowledged that agreeing the Plan had involved difficult decisions, for example to retire some in-service equipment and decisions on profile and timing of replacement projects. The Department’s Permanent Secretary noted that if the Department is to maintain the affordability of the Plan in the future “that kind of discipline needs to be not just a one-off in the integrated review but how we conduct ourselves year in, year out”.29