In February 2012, the Committee of Public Accounts held a hearing on the defence landscape. This review was prepared in advance of the hearing, by the National Audit Office for the Committee’s information.
This briefing was prepared for the House of Commons Defence Committee to help inform its inquiry into the education of Service personnel, its fourth in a series of inquiries looking at the workings of the Armed Forces Covenant.
The project to replace the UK’s ageing Anti Air Warfare capability, which is currently provided by the Type 42 destroyer, has suffered significant delays of over two years and costs have escalated to some £6½ billion, up by nearly 30 per cent from initial estimates of £5 billion. More recently, the project has progressed well, […]
The Whole of Government Accounts consolidates the public sector’s accounts to produce a picture of the UK’s public finances.
Sir John Bourn, head of the National Audit Office, reported today on the progress made by the Ministry of Defence in implementing the recommendations of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in its 2002 report on combat identification. Following a number of deaths of UK service personnel during the combat phase of Operation TELIC in Iraq […]
The competition to let this franchise lacked oversight. The full cost to the taxpayer is unknown, but likely to be significant.
Sir John Bourn, head of the National Audit Office, reported today that the Ministry of Defence is successfully introducing new management and contractual arrangements to deliver a better quality estate and has embarked on a major programme of estate rationalisation. However, more needs to be done to ensure that the benefits of these changes are […]
This report examines whether the government tackles serious and organised crime in an effective and coherent way.
This briefing was prepared for the House of Commons Defence Committee to help inform its inquiry into the education of Service children, its third in a series of inquiries looking at the workings of the Armed Forces Covenant.
This report examines how effectively the Cabinet Office coordinates the 2016–2021 National Cyber Security Programme.
There is a shortfall of 5,170 (2.8 per cent) trained Armed Forces personnel against the Ministry of Defence’s estimated requirements. Only the Army is within “manning balance”, and there are wider shortages of personnel in specific trade groups. According to today’s report to Parliament, by head of the National Audit Office Sir John Bourn, there […]
This landscape report aims to help Parliament better understand the complexities of the Defence Nuclear Enterprise by describing how the Ministry of Defence needs to bring together its programmes, including production of the new deterrent submarines, to provide a continuous at sea deterrent.
The National Audit Office’s annual report on the top 20 defence equipment projects shows that, in the last year, the forecast cost has actually decreased by £700 million but on average each project has been delayed by two and a half months. The delays are mainly due to technical problems in three projects: CIP (which […]
Sir John Bourn, Head of the National Audit Office, told Parliament today that the Ministry of Defence has made considerable progress in developing new approaches to the management of its Research and Technology (R&T) programme to deliver better outcomes for Defence, but the Department could do more to get the full benefit from the money […]
The MoD’s new regulations for overseeing non-competitive procurement has the potential to save significant sums of money, if implemented properly.
Sir John Bourn, head of the National Audit Office, reported today that in the last year, costs on the MOD’s 20 biggest equipment projects have increased by £1.7 billion and that these projects have been delayed by three months each on average. The problems on these projects show that the sensible principles of Smart Acquisition […]
Sir John Bourn, head of the National Audit Office, told Parliament today that the Ministry of Defence has a good system for reporting the readiness of its Armed Forces, which continues to improve. More work is required, however, both to better define and measure its Public Service Agreement target for readiness, and to define and […]
This report outlines how the public service pensions landscape has changed since the Hutton Review and highlights future challenges.
This page is part of our successful commissioning toolkit. This section summarises sections on risk management in “Intelligent Monitoring: an Element of Financial Relationships with Third Sector Organisations” published by the National Audit Office in 2009. What is risk management? Any financial agreement carries some risk [Note 1]. Manage risk, do not seek to eliminate it. […]
The Ministry of Defence is at the forefront of best practice in some areas of contract negotiation but needs to achieve these high levels more consistently, the National Audit Office reported today. The report to Parliament by head of the NAO, Sir John Bourn, looks at the importance of good contract management and builds on […]