Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to page 9 of the NAO's Equipment Plan 2021 to 2031, what plans his Department has to achieve £7 billion in planned cost reductions over the next 10 years.

As outlined in the recent Equipment Plan 2021, the Department's top level budget holders (TLBs) have planned £7 billion of cost reductions over ten years. This total includes some of the savings decisions taken in the Integrated Review to delete or descope large programmes for which there are clear plans but which were not yet finalised at April 2021. Informed by the priorities of the Integrated Review the Department has also agreed proposals with TLBs to reduce costs in areas of spending consisting of many smaller projects, which make up a substantial portion of the equipment plan, and further savings. Based on previous experience, the Department judges the scale of savings as achievable, and are now developing more detailed plans to build confidence in delivery.