Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 20
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 ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
In recent years the Department has improved the quality of the five service level agreements (SLAs) that it has with the Council, which set out what the armed forces and Department require the RFCAs to deliver each year. The Department reviews progress against the SLAs three times a year, and it told us that this has provided discipline and focus that was previously lacking and which was starting to change behaviour.29 However, the system relies on the Council and RFCA officials’ shared aims and values, and it lacks clear and well-understood escalation processes when issues cannot be 27 Q 2 28 Qq 9 and 10; C&AG’s Report, para 1.18 29 Qq 9, 10, and 21 to 23; C&AG’s Report, para 2.5 14 resolved locally. The Department said that it would not be easy to establish a ‘consequence culture’, where officials are truly accountable for poor performance, without establishing an NDPB.30 The volunteer estate
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".