House of Commons - Defence - First Special Report

Select Committee on Defence First Special Report

CONCLUSION

58. Of the 17 objectives we set ourselves at the beginning of the 1998-99 Session, we assess ourselves to have achieved or overshot our target on 9.[54] A further four were achieved in part and we have put in hand the necessary steps to implement our objective. One was not applicable in this session. Three were not achieved. During the current session we shall endeavour to step up our programmes of visits to front-line and support units, and meet the Chiefs of Staff.

Achievement against objectives

NO.	SUBJECT	ACTION	TIMING	OUTTURN
1	Annual Reporting Cycle: Expenditure Plans; Investment Strategy; White Paper; Performance Report; Appropriation Accounts	To take evidence and report in time for debate	On publication	Achieved (but no Annual White paper published in this Session).
2	Chiefs of Staff	To meet each informally	Once a year (at least)	Not achieved
3	Front line forces	To visit two or three units	Per year	Not achieved
4	Support units	To visit two or three units	Every 18 months	Achieved in part[55]
5	Statutory Instruments	To consider significant ones and take oral evidence when appropriate	On laying	Achieved[56]
6	Public appointments	To consider significant ones and take oral evidence when appropriate	As they occur	Achieved[57]
7	British forces on operations or major exercises	To visit (2/3 days)	Once a year	Not achieved[58]
8	Gulf War illnesses	To monitor developments, take evidence and report	Once a year/ as events require	Achieved[59]
9	Northern Ireland	To visit (3/4 days)	Once every two years	N/A[60]
10	Defence agencies	To take oral evidence on annual report	Two agencies per year	Achieved[61]
11	Treaties	To examine before ratification	When presented to Parliament	Achieved[62]
12	Defence Committees of major European countries	To meet/visit	Once every two years for France, Germany & Italy (possibly within NAA/WEU)	Achieved[63]
13	USA Congressional Committees in the field of national security	To meet/visit	Once a year (possibly within NAA)	Achieved[64]
14	Major procurement projects	To monitor developments and seek regular written or oral evidence	Annually	Achieved in part[65]
15	Resource Accounting and Budgeting	To monitor MoD's progress and take part in the choice of performance measures	By the end of the Parliament	Work in hand
16	Defence manufacturers	To visit/be briefed by UK defence manufacturers	One a year	Achieved[66]
17	Replies to parliamentary questions	To monitor refusals to give information and consider taking evidence in private	Once a year	Met in part/work in hand

We have re-adopted these objectives, with some minor variations, for the current session.

59. The overarching objective of the Committee is to improve our scrutiny of the MoD's work in order to hold the government more effectively to account. In our exchanges with Ministers and officials, we are constantly pressing for better quality information about the outputs of the department rather than quantitative descriptions of its activity. Inevitably, much of the information we have given in this account of our own work is about measures of activity. Our principal output is our reports, and we must leave it to others to judge their quality—in other words the degree to which they represent an effective exercise of Parliament's scrutiny function.

54 9 in 1997-98 Back

55 Royal Hospital Haslar; Joint Air Reconnaissance Intelligence Centre Back

56 See Fourth Report Back

57 See Second Report Back

58 Not in this session-Kosovo visited November 1999 Back

59 See evidence of 28th April Back

60 Last visited in March 1998 Back

61 DERA, Defence Diversification Agency, Defence Secondary Care Agency, Defence Dental Agency, Defence Medical Training Organisation, Medical Supplies Agency Back

62 Protocols to the North Atlantic Treaty; the OCCAR Convention Back

63 France (January); Germany (March) Back

64 Washington (October) Back

65 See Eighth Report Back