Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 15
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)
The Department admitted that its Head Office was not providing sufficient challenge on the financial judgements made by the TLBs when compiling the Equipment Plan.37 Because of the way the Department is organised under the delegated model, Head Office cannot easily access the TLBs’ financial information to identify the reasons for changes 27 Committee of Public Accounts, Defence Equipment Plan 2018–28, 77th Report of Session 2017–2019, 1 February 2019; Committee of Public Accounts, Defence Capability and Equipment Plan, 10th Report of Session 2019–2021, 15 July 2020 28 Q 58; C&AG’s report, para 1.24 29 Q 66; C&AG’s report, para 14, 1.24 30 Qq 58, 59 31 Q 60 32 Qq 66, 67 33 Q 60 34 Q 81; Committee of Public Accounts, Defence Equipment Plan 2018–28, 77th Report of Session 2017–2019, 1 February 2019 35 Q 82 36 Qq 81 - 83 37 Q 84 12 Defence Equipment Plan 2020–2030 to the Plan’s costs.38 The National Audit Office also found that Head Office did not have the data, resources or remit to undertake the level of quality assurance we would expect.39 The Department told us that it was actively seeking to address the ability of its Head Office to provide an appropriate level of leadership and challenge to the TLBs.40 It is seeking to ensure that Head Office has the resource and capability it needs to understand what is going on in the Commands and make balanced investment decisions that take account of the full range of defence activities and priorities.41
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."