MoD: Royal Navy, Army and RAF projects "in disarray" over costs and deadlines, defence committee chief says

Tanmanjeet Singh Dheshi, Labour politician and head of the Defence Select Committee, told the House of Commons today (January 6) that many programmes are buckling under pressure. He said only a handful of the current schemes for the Royal Navy, British Army and RAF will be delivered on time and to budget.

He said in parliament: “Currently, major defence programmes are in disarray, with only two out of 49 on time and to budget. What actions are the government taking to fix the waste and mismanagement which is currently in the system?” The Labour MP for Slough added that he is happy that British firms are being prioritised for government contracts, under the new Defence Industrial Strategy, but more needs to be done to fix current projects.

Defence secretary John Healey said: “Everyone agrees more needs to be spent on defence to meet increasing threats. The question of why only two out of 49 projects are on time and to budget may be best addressed to the shadow defence secretary, who was responsible for exactly that up until six months ago at the election.

“There is a question about how much we spend and the challenge of how well we spend it. The shadow armed forces minister was one of the strongest critics of the previous government and the broken procurement system he described. We are getting a grip of MoD budgets. We’re driving deep reform into defence and we’re making sure we can reduce the waste and delay in procurement contracts.”

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At a defence select committee meeting in December, it was confirmed that more projects could go overbudget and may miss previously allocated deadlines. Andy Start, Chief Executive of the Defence, Equipment & Support (DE&S) arm of the Ministry of Defence (MoD), said several factors including the fresh demand for components after the Covid-19 pandemic and other complications meant the defence supply chain was struggling, but the overall outlook is positive given the circumstances.

Earlier in parliament, Patrick Spencer, Conservative MP for Central Suffolk and Ipswich, said Nato allies are becoming frustrated with Britain for not investing in appropriate missile systems. He said to Mr Healey: “Can he make a commitment to me that he’ll invest in surface to air missiles, precision and hyper sonic missile systems, Dragonfire laser systems and counter-drone blocking technology to make sure the British Army is the most advanced and able in the western world?

The defence secretary responded: “It has been the case for many years that the UK has been one of the highest spenders on defence within Nato. That’s a proud record we continue to hold. Increasing spending this year will mean that Britain will continue to be one of the highest spenders in Nato. he added: “The last time the government spent 2.5 per cent on defence was in 2010 under a Labour government, a level of spending which was not matched once during the 14 years when his party was his government.”