Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 25 April 2022 to Question 156381, on Defence Equipment: Finance, how many of the £7 billion of planned cost reductions are accompanied by detailed plans on how those reductions will be made.

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. The total includes some of the savings decisions taken in the Integrated Review to delete or descope large programmes for which there are clear plans. £4 billion out of the £7 billion are reductions in 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.