13
Accepted
The Department acknowledged that expectations of service personnel are changing, and that what they needed...
Recommendation
The Department acknowledged that expectations of service personnel are changing, and that what they needed at different points of their career varied.39 We are aware, for example, that there are concerns about poor or expensive wi-fi, and a lack of cooking facilities.40 We were interested to understand what the Department was doing about the complaints by some personnel about the food on offer and the lack of self-catering facilities. 28 Qq 31–32 29 Q 35 30 Q 38 31 C&AG’s Report, para 3.9 32 Q 22 33 Q 23 34 Qq 22–24 35 C&AG’s Report, para 4.6 36 Qq 53, 69; C&AG’s Report, para 3.5 37 Qq 53, 69–71, 101 38 C&AG’s Report, para 3.5 39 Qq 14–15 40 C&AG’s Report, para 13 Improving single living accommodation for service personnel 13 The Department told us that it recognises that the ability to self-cater was a common requirement but, in many cases, accommodation was not built with such facilities. It is working towards offering this choice and provided an example of the Army, which is investing £77 million over the next 10 years in this area. However, it said the Army will be unable to upgrade around 25% of buildings because of fire or other safety regulations.41
Government Response Summary
The government agreed with the recommendation to gather service personnel views on Single Living Accommodation (SLA), committing to set clear expectations within the Defence Accommodation Strategy (DAS) by December 2021, with the SLA Expert Group assessing specific methods, including surveys.
Government Response
Accepted
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
2c: PAC recommendation: The Department should set out clearly in its Defence Accommodation Strategy: how it plans to gather the views of service personnel on Single Living Accommodation. 2.7 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation Target implementation date: December 2021 2.8 Whilst the department commits to gathering Service personnel views on SLA, the specifics of how this will be conducted are likely to be set outside of the DAS. The DAS will, however, set clear expectations on engagement with Service Personnel to inform decisions. 2.9 The department’s SLA Expert Group is currently assessing how best for service personnel views to inform changes to SLA, including using surveys to understand personnel needs and wants. Data collected through these routes will be used to improve management of the estate.
Source
Committee
Public Accounts Committee
Report
Fifty-Fourth Report - Improving single living accommodation for service personnel
23 Apr 2021
HC 940
Addressee Bodies
HM Treasury
Timeline
Recommendation age
5.3 yrs
Report published
23 Apr 2021