Select committee: Defence Committee
Conclusion 87
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 Haythornthwaite Review ‘Agency and agility: Incentivising people in a new era’, was an independent study commissioned by the MOD and published in June 2023. The Review looked at a number of areas where recruitment and retention could possibly be improved within the UK Armed Forces. 183 Q349; 427 184 Oral evidence taken on 12 December 2023, HC (2023–24) 54, Q40–2 185 Q212 186 Q23; 37; 67 187 Oral evidence taken before the Public Accounts Committee on 22 January 2024, HC (2023–24) 451, Q114 188 Policy changes relating to the MOD’s engagement with industry are covered in the final chapter on strategic readiness. 36 Ready for War? Box 3: Agency and agility: Incentivising people in a new era The Review considered the offer to personnel in relation to: their accommodation and food; their family life; their career structure; working conditions and renumeration; the training available to those in service; and a reduction in bureaucracy.189 The most far-reaching recommendations related to career structure, working conditions and renumeration: the ‘spectrum of service approach’ and the ‘total reward approach’. The spectrum of service approach (often referred to as the ‘zig zag career’) is a recommendation to replace the current blanket terms of service with individualised ones. This would allow an individual to determine their engagement type, engagement length, compulsion, mobility and military training factors, making their service much more flexible. The Review describes this as allowing the differing expectations placed on those serving to range “from those giving 24/7 whatever their Service asks of them, to increasing levels of control over working patterns or geographical stability, through to occasional weekends or short-term projects”. It would also allow personnel to leave and re-join the service after working in a different profession (such as in government or industry). The total reward approach, a complementary recommendation, would allow personnel to determin
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.