For the sixth successive year, the Ministry of Defence Accounts were qualified. The Qualifications covered non-compliance with international reporting standards on the treatment of some contracts; lack of audit evidence on the valuation of inventory (worth some £3 billion) and of capital spares (worth some £7 billion); and on the regularity of the Accounts because of the failure to obtain approval for the remuneration package of the Chief of Defence Materiel. The MoD was also five months late in submitting its audited accounts to Parliament. The National Audit Office had found errors in its sample examination of accruals and so the MoD decided to resolve these problems before submitting the accounts. The MoD said they did not have the necessary expertise to manage the financial complexity that featured in the implementation of the Strategic Defence and Security Review so sought assistance. The MoD should ensure its people have the right skills to deal with all financial problems so that they do not need to bring in expensive external accountants. There is also concern about the MoD's reluctance to estimate the full costs of its operations in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya. The NAO did not consider that the MoD has adequate information, especially with respect to recording the cost of its activities and outputs, to run its business effectively. The MoD should set out its commitment to improving its management information. It is also vital that defence spending remains at more than 2 per cent of GDP in line with the UK's NATO commitment.

This publication sets out the annual report and accounts of the Ministry of Defence for the year 2008-09, including a summary of performance against the Public Service Agreement (PSA) objectives and targets. The second volume of the report contains the consolidated departmental resource accounts for 2008-08 and annexes9

Government response to HC 828, session 2012-13 (ISBN 9780215054647)

In this report the Defence Committee expresses concern about the amount and quality of information provided in the MoD's Annual Report. Much work is still needed before it meets the standards the Committee would expect to see. The Committee identifies a number of key areas that should be included in the MOD's annual report in future. These include: the readiness levels of the Armed Forces, manning and outflow statistics in all Services, the performance of Defence Equipment and Support in procuring and maintaining defence equipment and performance against transformation projects in the MoD including the reform of the Armed Forces - Future Force 2020. For the seventh successive year, the Comptroller and Auditor General qualified the Ministry of Defence (MoD) Accounts for 2012-13 on a number of grounds. Whilst recognising that the MoD is finally taking inventory management seriously, the Committee is still concerned that much needs to be done to remedy the poor state of inventory control. A particular area of concern is that the Armed Forces have significant shortages in key specialists and the rate of voluntary outflow is higher than the 10 year average. The MoD must do more to retain service personnel in vital trades where there are shortages. Certain specialists such as intensive care nurses, engineering and intelligence personnel are particularly low in numbers and hard to replace due to their technical experience and qualifications.

Government response to HC 653, session 2013-14 (ISBN 9780215066077)

Response to HC 1635, session 2010-12 (ISBN 9780215040749)