Recommendation 4

The Department will need to continue to manage around the limitations of its current oversight arrangements for the RFCAs until it has established an NDPB. The Department has improved its oversight of the RFCAs since 2019, implementing around 70% of the Sullivan Review’s recommendations either fully or partially. It now has a single senior responsible owner, the Assistant Chief of the Defence Staff (Reserves and Cadets), to coordinate the Department’s various stakeholders who deal with the RFCAs. A sponsor board meets twice a year to review RFCAs’ performance. The Department has improved the service level agreements in which the armed forces specify their requirements for the RFCAs. However, the system still relies too much on the Council and RFCA officials’ shared aims and values, and it lacks clear and well-understood escalation processes when issues cannot be locally resolved. A ‘consequence culture’ where officials are truly accountable for poor performance is not yet embedded. The Department says it is now at an ‘inflection point’ where the governance and oversight of the RFCAs needs to be fit for purpose to support the ambitions in the SDR. recommendation Alongside its Treasury Minute response, the Department should write to the Committee setting out how it will enhance accountability for the performance of the RFCAs under the current arrangements, pending the establishment of an NDPB.