Select committee: Defence Committee
Conclusion 69
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)
The Government has previously pointed to its successes in signing contracts—in June 2022 it noted that it had secured “contracts for Next Generation Light AntiTank Weapons, Starstreak High Velocity Missiles, Lightweight Multirole Missiles, Archer 6X6 Artillery 132 Q406 133 Q406–7 134 Q453 135 Q213; 220; 237; 322 136 Ammunition supply chain crisis: Ukraine war tests Europe in race to rearm, Financial Times, 7 February 2023 137 Alex Vershinin, The Return of Industrial Warfare, RUSI Commentary, 17 June 2022 138 Oral evidence taken on 5 September 2023, HC (2022–23) 1804, Q29 139 Q76; 162 140 Oral evidence taken on 6 July 2021, HC (2021–2022) 166, Q282; Oral evidence taken on 19 April 2022, HC (2021– 2022) 608, Q93 Ready for War? 29 Systems and Carl Gustaf recoilless rifles”.141 In addition to the £560 million announced at the Autumn Statement in 2022, the IR23 had announced £1.95 billion to replenish stockpiles in 2023–24 and 2024–25 “and to increase them in line with a reassessment of appropriate levels … and to invest in the resilience of the UK’s munitions infrastructure”142 and DCP23 a further £2.5 billion on “replenishing—and augmenting—” munitions and stockpiles “through the coming decade”143. However, the NAO’s recent report on the Equipment Plan 2023–33 found that the £1.95 billion allocated in the IR23 (and then the Spring Budget 2023) was not ringfenced and so the MOD “is considering using it to help offset its funding shortfall in 2023–24 and 2024–25”.144
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.