Source · Select Committees · Defence Committee
Recommendation 34
34
Accepted
Lack of adequate official information hinders public scrutiny of UK armed forces readiness
Conclusion
In the absence of adequate official information, public and parliamentary scrutiny of and debate about UK armed forces readiness currently relies on media reporting and corridor conversations, leading to suspicion that the forces are less ready than in fact they are. It does not need to be like this. The information flow in many of our NATO allies is far franker. Our request is not for very detailed, very highly classified information, but for information that only the most naïve would think was not already in the hands of the UK’s potential adversaries and their intelligence apparatus.
Government Response Summary
The government recognizes the need for more public information on planning assumptions and readiness, committing to releasing headlines from current Defence Planning Assumptions (DPAs) and 'as much as possible' of future DPAs when national and NATO planning processes mature.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
Today’s Defence Planning Assumptions (DPAs) are not only a description of the current Force capacity; they also look forward to describe the assumed demand on the Force over a 10-year period and the resultant development of it. Given that context, preserving some strategic ambiguity in our planning is an advantage, given an increase in sophisticated state threats. There has not been a decision to withhold information, but the form and function of that information has evolved over the years, and classified DPAs have always existed, whereby the totality has not been released publicly. However, the government recognises that the Committee should have public access to more information on planning assumptions and readiness than is currently provided. Therefore, the following headlines from current DPAs are released below. We commit to release as much as possible of the next iteration of DPAs when national and NATO planning processes have matured. Releasable Detail from DPA23 4 x Military Outputs: 1. Strategic Resilience 2. NATO Contribution 3. Crisis Response 4. Global Competition Redacted Non-Discretionary Tasks: 1. CASD. 2. Protect UK seas, airspace, cyberspace and outer space assets. 3. NATO commitments. 4. Warfighting in the Euro-Atlantic. 5. Operations outside the NATO Area. 6. Defence specialist capabilities for MACA. 7. Small scale crisis response. 8. Medium scale framework nation. Redacted definitions of Small scale and Medium scale: • Small Scale: operations to protect UK interests that are limited in scope, scale and duration. They include, for example, assured sovereign Non-Combatant Evacuation Operations, Hostage Rescue, National Strike and Humanitarian Relief. Defence will be capable of conducting concurrent small-scale crisis response operations. Forces will be held at graduated readiness and are likely to be commanded at up to 1* level. A sovereign Joint Theatre Entry capability to secure and operate the requisite number of Air and Sea Ports of Disembarkation will be maintained. • Medium Scale: operations including limited intervention such as more complex peacekeeping, peace enforcement, or expeditionary warfighting, as part of a coalition, alliance or UN response, against an irregular, asymmetric or peer (-) adversary. Defence will be capable of contributing to, or acting as framework nation for, medium scale crisis response operations.