Twenty-Second - Improving the performance of major defence equipment contracts
Select Committee
Public Accounts Committee
HC 185
3 November 2021
Government Response (AI assessment · 21 of 24 classified)
Accepted
14
Government response
Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Twenty Second report from Session 2021-22 · published 21 Jan 2022
Recommendations & Conclusions
6 results
4
Recommendation
Not Addressed
The Department continually fails to learn from its mistakes.
Recommendation
The Department continually fails to learn from its mistakes. The Department has been delivering equipment programmes for decades and has overseen many expensive failures. There have been at least 13 formal reviews of defence procurement policy over the last 35 …
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Government Response Summary
The government describes existing systems for learning from experience (LfE) and ongoing efforts to standardise LfE information, along with established Strategic Partnering and Category Management Programmes and an Acquisition and Approvals Transformation Programme. However, it does not commit to providing the specific clear plan requested by the Committee.
HM Treasury
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1
Conclusion
Not Addressed
On the basis of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, we took evidence...
Conclusion
On the basis of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, we took evidence from the Ministry of Defence (the Department) and Defence Equipment & Support on improving the performance of major equipment contracts.1
Government Response Summary
The government's response is a boilerplate introductory statement confirming it is responding to the Committee's report, without addressing any specific content.
HM Treasury
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8
Conclusion
Not Addressed
We questioned the Department in detail on the Ajax programme to procure armoured reconnaissance vehicles...
Conclusion
We questioned the Department in detail on the Ajax programme to procure armoured reconnaissance vehicles for the Army. In 2014, the Department agreed a deal with General Dynamics United Kingdom (GDUK) to procure 589 vehicles - down from an initial …
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Government Response Summary
The government's response is boilerplate text acknowledging its report and listing other relevant reports, but it does not address the Committee's detailed observations and concerns regarding the Ajax programme.
HM Treasury
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9
Conclusion
The Department had told the NAO that it considered initial operating capability achievable by the...
Conclusion
The Department had told the NAO that it considered initial operating capability achievable by the end of June 2021, but in our public evidence session, witnesses could not tell us when some sort of capability will be secured, even in …
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HM Treasury
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13
Recommendation
Across the 20 projects and programmes examined by the NAO, 14 are being procured partly...
Recommendation
Across the 20 projects and programmes examined by the NAO, 14 are being procured partly or wholly non-competitively, despite the fact that ‘competition by default’ has been departmental policy for nearly a decade. In only four of these cases was …
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HM Treasury
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16
Conclusion
The Department has ambitions to improve delivery performance through use of ‘agile’ procurement—delivery methods where...
Conclusion
The Department has ambitions to improve delivery performance through use of ‘agile’ procurement—delivery methods where the requirement and solutions are developed collaboratively in discrete steps with flexibility around requirements, cost and schedule. However, delivery teams found that agile approaches were …
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HM Treasury
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