Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 6
43rd Report - MoD’s oversight of Reserve Forces’ and Cadets’ Associations
Published 5 Sep 2025
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee MoD’s oversight of Reserve Forces’ and Cadets’ Associations All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
The Department’s arrangements for monitoring and reporting on the RFCAs’ financial performance are inadequate. The RFCAs’ accounts have been produced very late in recent years. The Department published the RFCAs accounts for 2020–21, 2021–22 and 2022–23 together, in October 2024, which means that some information about the Council and the RFCAs’ financial performance was not publicly available until more than four years after it had occurred. The Department had not published the 2023–24 accounts at the time of our inquiry, more than a year after the end of that financial year. Despite the RFCAs receiving £146 million of public money in 2023–24, the Department does not have an overall financial framework for them which complies with HM Treasury requirements. The Department began developing a new financial framework in 2022, but this is still not in place: it is currently with HM Treasury for comment, and the Department says that it expects to finalise it in the next few months. In addition, some of the RFCAs’ financial reporting is not compliant with HM Treasury and International Financial Reporting Standards. For example, the Council, which consolidates the accounts of the 13 RFCAs, was unaware that it should include a cash flow statement and the Department did not pick them up on this omission. 6 recommendation As a matter of urgency, the Department should: a. agree and implement a HM Treasury-compliant financial framework; b. publish the RFCAs’ accounts for 2023–24 in a format that complies with the applicable HM Treasury and international accounting standards; and c. work with the Council to ensure that in future the RFCAs understand the requirements they must comply with and are equipped to do so. 7 1 The Ministry of Defence’s vision for the RFCAs Introduction
From: Public Accounts Committee, 43rd Report - MoD’s oversight of Reserve Forces’ and Cadets’ Associations (HC 893), 5 September 2025
Government response
Latest Treasury Minutes progress report to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Forty-third Report of Session 2024-26
The government responded to the whole report on 4 June 2026 (deadline 5 November 2025).
Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Forty-third report from Session 2024-26
Published 19 January 2026.
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government agrees with most of the Committee's recommendations on the Reserve Forces' and Cadets' Associations, with target dates mainly of March or June 2026, and disagrees with one on publishing the 2023-24 accounts.
- On the Reserves, it agrees to set out its plan by March 2026 and says it will provide updates on progress as requested; it plans legislative measures in the next Armed Forces Bill to increase Active Reserves towards the 20% target, "when the financial situation allows".
- On Cadets, it agrees to a plan by June 2026 and says development of a programme plan for growth in Cadet numbers is "well underway", including work on adult volunteers and safeguarding capacity.
- On the proposed NDPB, it agrees to update the Committee by March 2026 and says the proposal "remains one of the measures being developed for potential inclusion in the 2026 Armed Forces Bill".
- It disagrees with the recommendation to publish the 2023-24 accounts in a compliant format, saying it is working to lay the 2023-24 and 2024-25 accounts "as planned in 2025-26" and acknowledging that "certain areas are not currently compliant with the FReM".