Source · Select Committees · Defence Committee
Recommendation 4
4
Accepted
Paragraph: 34
Lack of official information hinders public scrutiny of UK armed forces readiness
Conclusion
In the absence of adequate official information, public and parliamentary scrutiny of and debate about UK armed forces readiness currently relies on media reporting and corridor conversations, leading to suspicion that the forces are less ready than in fact they are. It does not need to be like this. The information flow in many of our NATO allies is far franker. Our request is not for very detailed, very highly classified information, but for information that only the most naïve would think was not already in the hands of the UK’s potential adversaries and their intelligence apparatus.
Government Response Summary
The government explained the evolution of Defence Planning Assumptions into classified documents but committed to enhancing transparency and has released a version of the 2023 DPAs.
Paragraph Reference:
34
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
We note the Committee’s recommendation to explain why previously unclassified information about readiness is no longer published. Since 1998, the Defence Planning Assumptions (DPAs) have continued to evolve. During the Strategic Defence Review in July 1998, the DPAs included Defence Missions, Military Tasks, definitions of small, medium, large, and full-scale operations, alongside concurrency sets were published. In 2005, the DPAs were Confidential (an obsolete classification–not for public release) and in 2015’s Defence review they are not referenced explicitly, instead ‘Armed Forces Missions’ are listed. Classified DPAs were subsequently issued in Defence Strategic Direction (DSD) in 2016. This evolution of DPAs into a classified document happened as they are intended to describe in detail the principal assumptions upon which the Force is designed, trained, and resourced. We are sure that the Committee would agree that we must protect this information given the detail and specificity it provides. We are now seeking to enhance the Department’s transparency. We have released a version of the 2023 DPAs as shown above. The MOD is remains focussed on continuously looking to further upskill and improve on how we undertake our Parliamentary and Legislative business to the highest standard–a priority for both our Perm Secs under the good to great campaign–and how we are disclosing information into the public domain is very much part of that work. In addition, the recent publication of Defence’s Drone Strategy, that outlined the UK’s approach to Defence’s Uncrewed Systems, highlights an example of the Government’s ambition to be more open.