Press Release - Ministry of Defence: Assessing and Reporting
Military Readiness
15 June 2005
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 mitigate the main areas of
risk to the readiness of the Armed Forces, such as logistic
support.
The Department has a good
system for reporting the readiness of the Armed Forces, and has
improvements planned.
The Department has developed a
sophisticated system for defining, measuring and reporting the
readiness of the Armed Forces. It is continuously being improved;
compares well with similar readiness systems used by countries such
as Australia, Denmark and United States; and senior United Kingdom
commanders have expressed their confidence in it.
The Department also has a Public
Service Agreement target for readiness, and this has recently been
improved to include all Force Elements; to better reflect the
Department’s activities by recognising the importance of related
elements of military operations; and to take into account the
levels of military activity proposed in the 2003 Defence White
Paper. It can be improved further by making information publicly
available that indicates the broad baseline from which improvements
will be made, and by providing information so that the public can
assess whether the Department is on course to meet the targets. The
Department has already begun to act on the National Audit Office’s
recommendations.
Readiness states for October to
December 2004 (the most recent data available) were assessed
overall as "yellow" – minor weaknesses. This performance
represented a marked improvement over the preceding year in terms
of the proportion of Force Elements with no critical weaknesses,
which increased from 80 per cent in July to September 2003 to 98
per cent in October to December 2004. The proportion reporting no
serious or critical weaknesses over the period was more variable,
ranging from two-thirds to four-fifths of Force Elements.
Given the unpredictable
security environment and high operational tempo, there are risks to
readiness of the Armed Forces for contingent operations that need
to be managed
The Department has a risk reporting
system that includes readiness risks, which are managed against the
background of an unpredictable security environment and military
activity levels that for the last three years have exceeded the
routine scale of effort envisaged by the Department. This position
is expected to continue for the foreseeable future.
The Department has done well to identify the main factors that
might hinder their ability to be ready to undertake future
operations. It has also identified areas where more work needs to
be done; for example, in aligning more closely the levels of
support that the Defence Logistics Organisation provides with the
levels front line forces require to meet readiness targets.
More work could be done to assess how confident the Department
can be that it can manage the risks to readiness (for example, the
Department is relying on urgent procurements to fill gaps in
equipment levels within readiness timescales) and to evaluate the
longer term risks to readiness of the practice of redistributing
personnel and equipment from non-deploying units to those Force
Elements required for operations. The Department’s management
boards rightly focus on those risks that appear to present the
greatest threats to their business objectives. But there is a
potential danger that the cumulative effect of a series of minor
risks could have serious impacts on the readiness of Force Elements
for further operations.
Sir John Bourn said
today:
"At a time when the security environment is
unpredictable, it is encouraging that the Ministry of Defence is
continuing to develop the system that reports the readiness of its
Armed Forces. The Ministry of Defence has identified a number of
factors that may hinder the readiness of the Armed Forces and these
need to be watched carefully. In particular, it needs to evaluate
longer-term risks to the United Kingdom forces’ ability to
undertake future operations. I am pleased that the Ministry of
Defence has already begun work in response to the recommendations
in this Report."
Notes for Editors
-
Press notices and reports are
available from the date of publication on the NAO website,
which is now at www.nao.org.uk. Hard copies can be
obtained from The Stationery Office
on 0845 702 3474.
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The Comptroller and Auditor
General, Sir John Bourn, is the head of the National Audit Office
which employs some 800 staff. He and the NAO are totally
independent of Government. He certifies the accounts of all
Government departments and a wide range of other public sector
bodies; and he has statutory authority to report to Parliament on
the economy, efficiency and effectiveness with which departments
and other bodies have used their resources.
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A ‘Force Element’ might consist of
an individual ship in the Royal Navy; an armoured brigade in the
Army; or an individual aircraft or squadron of aircraft in the
Royal Air Force.
Press Notice 40/05
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