15th Special Report - Beyond 2 per cent: A preliminary report on the Modernising Defence Programme: Government Response to the Committee’s Seventh Report

This is the government's response, published 1 March 2019.

Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.

The Government welcomes the Committee's report and says the Modernising Defence Programme (MDP) has set policy approaches and capability investments to keep Defence on track for the coming decade.

• On the Committee's call to move defence spending back towards 3% of GDP, the Government commits to spending at least 2% of GDP "every year of this Parliament", says this should be seen as "a floor and not a ceiling", and adds that it should "not get distracted by percentages".
• On the Army, the Government states it is "committed to maintaining the overall size of the Armed Forces", including an Army capable of deploying a warfighting division. It does not refer to the Committee's 82,000 figure.
• On airborne early warning, the Government says a new-buy "would meet the capability requirement and be cost effective", "subject to the MOD and HM Treasury stringent approvals processes".
• On the retention of surplus equipment as a war reserve, the Government accepts it has "a certain attractiveness" but points to cost and practicality, saying its policy is instead to give personnel "the most modern and effective equipment available".

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