Oral Answers to Questions

Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton Excerpts

Monday 13th December 2010 Commons Chamber

[Claire Perry (Devizes) (Con)]

11. What arrangements are in place to monitor the progress of his Department’s major equipment procurement programmes.

[Mark Lancaster (Milton Keynes North) (Con)]

14. What arrangements are in place to monitor the progress of his Department’s major equipment procurement programmes.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence (Peter Luff)]

I receive monthly reports and quarterly detailed project health checks on the Ministry of Defence’s largest projects. Last year, discounting deliberate policy decisions made by the previous Government, the MOD met all its targets to deliver its major projects to cost, time and performance. This year looks equally encouraging. The top 30 major projects are also reviewed annually by the National Audit Office and in this year’s report the Comptroller and Auditor General said:

“In-year performance on the majority of large defence projects which we examined has been encouraging".

But we should not wait for the NAO to tell us how we are doing at the end of the year. That is why I can announce to the House today that the Secretary of State and I are forming a major projects performance board that will review our most significant projects regularly.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Speaker]

We are most grateful.

[Mark Lancaster]

Historically, one of the fundamental problems with procurement has been a disconnect between Ministers, civil servants, uniformed personnel and the defence industry. How do we intend to address that problem in the future?

[Peter Luff]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. We talk of a conspiracy of optimism in these major projects that has so often characterised procurement decisions in the past. The list I rattled through in answer to my hon. Friend the Member for Devizes (Claire Perry) partly addresses the concerns of my hon. Friend the Member for Milton Keynes North (Mark Lancaster). I am sorry that I said it so fast, but it was important to get it on the record. If I do not deliver on that, I think my job will be on the line.