Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 26
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)
However, for deterrence to be effective, the UK’s Armed Forces must be credible.81 Such credibility is undermined by widely reported recruitment and retention issues, with eight people leaving the Armed Forces for every five who are recruited.82 Despite the MoD’s assurances that it took this issue very seriously, it accepted that recruitment and retention is a problem and that this had led to workforce pressures.83 The MoD acknowledged that its current workforce plan was not working in the way it wanted, and said that its number one risk to delivering defence priorities both now and in the future was not attracting the right number of people with the skills that it needs.84 To address this, it is looking at ways to provide greater flexibility in Armed Forces careers, such as “zigzag careers” with people coming in and out of the services.85
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".