Recommendation 22

We are concerned that the Department has no flexibility in its 2020–2030 Equipment Plan budget, which limits its ability to respond quickly to new or emerging threats.63 The National Audit Office report showed that the Department has only made provision for projects that it has already begun and has not allocated any funding to develop new high- priority capabilities or replace existing capabilities.64 The Department allocated all of its 2020–21 contingency in response to the financial pressures that it faces but accepted that its approach was not best practice. It told us that it needed to build some margin back into the programme to avoid repetition of the short-term money saving measures that do not achieve value for money.65