Select committee: Defence Committee
Conclusion 126
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)
When we took evidence on DE&S, we heard from industry that it wanted: long- term consistency on required capabilities; earlier engagement in the requirement setting process, multi-year budgets; an improved (and consistent) social value framework; and decisions made with reference made to imperatives other than lowest up-front cost (such as end-user needs, through-life cost, or industrial resilience).257 There was a recognition among witnesses that improvements were taking place but a warning that much of the required change would need to be cultural (as opposed to process-based).258 ADS also 251 Oral evidence taken on 18 April 2023, HC (2022–23) 1246, Q17 252 Q271; Defence Committee, Sixth Special Report of Session 2022–23, Special Relationships? US, UK and NATO: Government Response to the Committee’s Sixth Report, HC 1533, Para 16 253 Ukraine asks EU for 250,000 artillery shells a month, Financial Times, 3 March 2023; Why the 155 mm round is so critical to the war in Ukraine, Associated Press News, 23 April 2023 254 UK Asks BAE to Ramp Up Artillery Shell Production Amid Ukraine Drawdown, The Defense Post, 17 November 2022 255 DE&S places new order with BAE Systems to increase 155mm shells stockpile for British Army, DE&S press release, 11 July 2023 256 Q378; 381 257 BAE Systems plc (DES0035); ADS (DES0021); Lockheed Martin UK (DES0022) 258 Oral evidence taken on 17 May 2023 HC (2022–23) 1099, Q25 [Lucia Retter] 48 Ready for War? highlighted that many of these issues had a different impact on SMEs meaning that when changes were introduced, their impact needed to be considered not just in relation to defence primes, but in relation to the whole of the supply chain.259
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.