Select committee: Defence Committee
Conclusion 62
First Report - Ready for War?
Published 4 Feb 2024
Addressed to Ministry of Defence
Defence Committee Armed Forces Readiness All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
Strategic Command is a joint force Command, working across defence and with the three Front Line Commands to integrate capabilities across all domains. Commander, Strategic Command told us that he would regard the different parts of his organisations as some of the jewels in the crown of defence’s capability: Permanent Joint Headquarters 117 The new aircraft are compatible with the boom-receptacle in-flight refuelling system used by the US Air Force amongst others. The A400M is also capable of boom-receptacle in-flight refuelling but the use of UK A400Ms for such a purpose has been ruled out by the MOD. 118 Human Security Centre (AFR0004) 119 Q46 120 Letter from the Minister of State for Defence Procurement to the Committee, Ministry of Defence, 10 July 2023 121 Q37; Q42; Q46 122 Defence Committee, Tenth Report of Session 2022–23, Aviation Procurement: Winging it?, HC 178 123 Oral evidence taken on 4 July 2023, HC (2022–23) 1689, Q93 124 Q241; Q243 Ready for War? 27 (PJHQ) which “effectively co-ordinat[es] defence-wide operations”; Defence Intelligence; Special Forces; the National Cyber Force; Defence Digital (“looking at both defensive cyber operations but also providing the digital capability and digital transformation for all of defence”); Defence Medical Services; the Chief of Defence Logistics and Support; responsibility for the UK’s overseas bases and the Defence Attaché network; defence thinking and education (including the development of concepts and doctrine); and an innovation hub.125
From: Defence Committee, First Report - Ready for War? (HC 26), 4 February 2024
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 25 April 2024 (deadline 4 April 2024).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government agrees there is no regular mechanism to scrutinise readiness and offers an annual open session, releases some Defence Planning Assumptions headlines, and sets out its position on stockpiles, recruitment and procurement.
- On transparency, the government "recognises that the Committee should have public access to more information on planning assumptions and readiness" and releases headlines from the 2023 assumptions, committing to release "as much as possible" of the next iteration "when national and NATO planning processes have matured".
- It agrees the response time for the inquiry was slow and "will make every effort to ensure this is not repeated".
- On the £1.95bn from the Spring Budget 2023, it states the money "will be spent in full on measures to address gaps in our capabilities". It says exact stockpile holdings are "not releasable on the grounds of national security".
- On recruitment and retention, it says a formal response to each Haythornthwaite Review recommendation "will be published during 2024", with next steps for delivery and implementation for each.