Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 8
Fiftieth Report - Defence Equipment Plan 2020–2030
Published 16 Mar 2021
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee Defence Equipment Plan 2020-2030 All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
When asked if the financial problems with the Defence budget were ever likely to change, the Permanent Secretary pointed first to the Department not having a very good understanding of the drivers of inflation with defence projects. Second, and in his view probably most importantly, he highlighted the inherent difficulties of long-term and technical projects, where threats change, and where new capabilities come along that render as potentially obsolete equipment yet to be procured. He commented that “there is always going to be…a degree of flux, which is difficult to predict, in a defence procurement programme of this scale and tenor.”15 He also considered that, while the recently announced additional funding put the Department in a “much, much, much better position” to get the whole programme into balance, there would still be “tensions and flux” with which his successor would continue to struggle.16
From: Public Accounts Committee, Fiftieth Report - Defence Equipment Plan 2020–2030 (HC 693), 16 March 2021
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 31 August 2021 (deadline 16 May 2021).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government states that it agrees with the Committee's recommendations that are set out in the response, each with a stated target implementation date, and sets out related work already under way.
- On affordability, it agrees that the next Equipment Plan report must demonstrate affordability, and says that report (Autumn 2021) will set out the implications of the 2020 Spending Review settlement and the Integrated Review.
- On transparency over the additional funding, it agrees and says it "will write to the Committee before summer recess" with a summary of investment and savings decisions, with a target date of June 2021.
- On defence cost inflation, it agrees and says it will write to the Committee alongside the Autumn 2021 Equipment Plan report, and states it "is committed to changing attitudes and behaviours within the Defence acquisition system".
- On finance capability, it agrees with a target date of March 2023, noting that "It takes time to both train and recruit professionally qualified staff, but numbers will increase over time."