Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to ensure (a) value for money from his Department's projects and (b) that those projects are completed (i) on time and (ii) within budget.

In line with Treasury Green Book guidance the Department considers a range of options for projects to determine which is the most effective at meeting the Armed Forces' needs whilst offering best value for money.

To ensure value for money is delivered through the life of a project, the Department has invested additional resource to monitor and evaluate cost, time and performance through life and embed a culture of evaluation.

As set out in our Annual Report, we continue to transform the way we do business, driving improvements in the processes and skills required to delivery programmes successfully.

We are setting projects up for success through early consideration of strategic factors, focusing expertise on areas of highest risk and complexity to support robust, evidence-based investment decisions and improve overall project outcomes. We are also improving the resourcing of projects with suitably qualified and experienced people through measures set out in the Department’s Project Delivery Functional Strategy on gov.uk.