Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 21
Nineteenth Report - MoD Equipment Plan 2023–2033
Published 8 Mar 2024
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee The Equipment Plan 2023–2033 All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
The MoD has made some progress with training senior responsible owners (SROs) and increasing the proportion of their time spent on delivering projects.64 SROs also now 52 Q 23 53 Qq 21, 23; C&AG’s Report, para 2.4 54 Qq 31, 113; C&AG’s Report, para 2.6 55 Q 30 56 Q 75 57 Q 75 58 Q 26; C&AG’s Report, para 2.6 59 Qq 15, 16 60 Q 102; C&AG’s Report, para 2.11 61 Q 106; C&AG’s Report, paragraph 2.11; “The full definition of ‘red’ is that “Successful delivery of the project appears to be unachievable. There are major issues with project definition, schedule, budget, quality and/or benefits delivery, which at this stage do not appear to be manageable or resolvable. The project may need re- scoping and/or its overall viability reassessed.” 62 C&AG’s Report, para 2.11 63 Q 111 64 Q 122 ; C&AG’s Report, para 2.12 14 MoD Equipment Plan 2023–2033 have a direct route to contact senior MoD staff if they are concerned about progress.65 However, the MoD has faced difficulties both in funding teams to support SROs, and in recruiting and retaining suitably qualified and experienced staff.66 The MoD said that it is facing a slow and steady attrition of skilled staff, because they have attractive skillsets that are wanted by many industries in a vibrant job market.67 In March 2023, recruitment and retention problems resulted in SROs for 24 out of 30 major MoD equipment projects rating the availability of skills and capabilities for their projects as amber, while four rated it red.68
From: Public Accounts Committee, Nineteenth Report - MoD Equipment Plan 2023–2033 (HC 451), 8 March 2024
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 28 May 2024.
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government agrees with the Committee's recommendations on consistent forecast costing, clearer signals to industry, assessing the new procurement model and reliance on allies, but disagrees with those on setting out cuts under a 2.5% shortfall and on reporting nuclear funding trends.
- On the 2.5% of GDP aspiration, the government disagrees with the recommendation; the department "does not intend to set out a list of capabilities that would be cut" because this would risk operational security and industry confidence.
- On nuclear costs, the government disagrees with the recommendation. If conventional budgets are affected by nuclear funding needs the department "will make that clear", but it considers going further "wholly speculative".
- The government agrees that all budget holders should treat forecast costs consistently, with a target implementation date of Spring 2025. The department "will seek to standardise" the data and its presentation.
- The government agrees to assess the impact of the Integrated Procurement Model, with a target date of December 2024. It will "monitor the increase in pace of delivery and provide updates as appropriate".