Recommendation 14

There are some attempts by the Cabinet Office to coordinate funding bids across departments and to guide the Treasury’s subsequent decision-making. Nevertheless, the final allocation of funding is frequently the result of a battle of wills between individual Secretaries of State, Number 10 and the Treasury. It is far removed from any clear-headed assessment of the Government’s key national security priorities, the level of resourcing required to achieve them, and collective agreement among senior Ministers of the final allocations.