Source · Select Committees · Defence Committee
Recommendation 35
35
Accepted in Part
Propose mechanism for annual, detailed updates to Defence Committee on UK Armed Forces readiness
Conclusion
In a functioning democracy, the House of Commons Defence Committee needs to be routinely informed about the planning assumptions and readiness of the nation’s armed forces. We therefore recommend that—following the Minister’s welcome commitment to work with us—the Government propose how we and our successors can receive at least annually a meaningfully detailed update on the readiness of the UK Armed Forces, taking account of our conclusions above.
Government Response Summary
The government commits to releasing headlines from current Defence Planning Assumptions (DPAs) and 'as much as possible' of future DPAs. However, it does not explicitly propose a mechanism for providing annual, detailed updates specifically to the Committee.
Government Response
Accepted in Part
HM Government
Accepted in Part
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.