Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the usefulness of the annual reports of the external scrutiny team of the Council of Reserve Forces' and Cadets' Associations, and of whether the reports are genuinely independent of the Ministry of Defence under the current arrangements.

Defence Ministers are very grateful for the hard work of the External Scrutiny Team (EST) led by Maj Gen (Retd) Simon Lalor. My hon. Friend Alistair Carns DSO MC OBE, Minister for Veterans and People, expressed the same sentiment on 17 December 2024, when he placed a copy in the Library of the House the EST’s Annual Statutory Report 2024 on the health of the Reserve Forces. A copy of that Report and Alistair Carns’ response can be found at the following link: https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2024-12-17/hcws326

I am clear that the EST is indeed independent, since it directs its own business, and I greatly value its reports as a result. The future of the EST will likely be a topic for discussion once the new Armed Forces Commissioner is appointed.