Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 7
7
Acknowledged
MoD inventory management suffers from long-standing issues with fragmented legacy IT systems
Conclusion
MoD’s inventory management has faced long-standing issues with its many legacy IT systems, which have limited functionality and reinforce the fragmentation of its inventory management. Each Command has its own core inventory management system, and there are other systems used across the Support function for managing other types of inventory, as well as aspects such as engineering. Whilst the MoD has reduced the number of Support systems from around 250 in 2010 to 89 today, two of its base inventory management systems (SS3 and CRISP, used by the Army and Royal Navy respectively) are nearly 40 years old.15
Government Response Summary
The government agrees with the committee's observations and will provide an update within six months by July 2024. It also provided corrected data on inventory stockpile holdings, claiming more success in managing them down than previously reported.
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
2.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: July 2024 2.2 The Ministry of Defence (the department) will provide the recommended update, covering the topics listed above, within six months of the date of the Committee’s report. 2.3 In following up queries raised during the hearing, the Permanent Secretary has written to the Committee to notify it of error in the department’s reporting of inventory stockpile holdings on its systems, which has been reflected in the NAO report that underpinned the Committee’s work on this issue. The correct data, shown in the table below, demonstrates markedly more success in managing down its inventory holdings than have claimed. Financial Year Type of Items Number of Items 2022-23 517k 457m 2021-22 523k 507m 2020-21 528k 550m 2019-20 557k 559m 2018-19 598k 559m 2017-18 640k 740m