Memorandum submitted by the Ministry of
Defence
This memorandum provides an update of the factual
assessments contained in the NAO Report "Assessing and Reporting
Military Readiness".
The assessments of military readiness that appeared
in the Report were based on the latest available data. This comprised
information up to and including the period October 2004 to December
2004 (Quarter 3 of 2004-05). Assessments covering the period January
2005 to March 2005 (Quarter 4 of 2004-05) and April 2005 to June
2005 (Quarter 1 of 2005-06) are now available.
The assessment in the Report (para 1.30) of
readiness against required peacetime levels, our B1 measure, was
Yellow—minor weaknesses from target. This remained the position
both at Q4 04-05 and Q1 05-06.
The assessment in the Report (para 1.32) of
overall readiness, our aggregated B measure, was Amber—showing
serious weaknesses. This also remained the position both at Q4
04-05 and Q1 05-06.
Figure 8 of the Report (on page 15) illustrates
the percentage of Force Elements with no critical or serious weaknesses
to their required peacetime readiness levels (our B1 measure).
An updated version of this table is attached at Appendix 1. This
shows that the percentage of Force Elements with no critical weaknesses
rose from 98% at Q3 04-05 to 100% at Q4 04-05, and remained at
100% at Q1 05-06. The table also shows that the percentage of
Force Elements with no serious weaknesses rose from 62% at Q3
04-05 to 65% at Q4 04-05, and rose again at Q1 05-06 to 75%.
Data covering the second quarter of 2005-06,
namely the period from July 2005 to September 2005, will be provided
as soon as it is available.
The NAO expressed concern (paragraph 1.41) about
the failure to disclose the Public Service Agreement (PSA) baseline
against which readiness improvements are to be measured. In particular,
the Report noted that it would not be possible to assess from
published data whether the 5% improvement we aim to achieve represents
good or bad performance. The Report also expressed concern (para
1.41 and 1.42) about our proposed use of "a single census
date", in this case 31 March 2008. It noted that the use
of a single census date could, in theory, permit us to fail to
achieve any improvement in readiness levels, and perhaps even
experience degradation, while still achieving our target on 31
March 2008.
To address these concerns, we have changed the
baseline from the readiness levels at Quarter 4 of 2004-05 to
the average readiness level across the whole of year 2004-05.
We have calculated the average by dividing the quarterly assessments
by four. This gives a baseline of 68% of Force Elements with no
critical or serious weaknesses. As our aim is to improve planned
peacetime readiness levels by 5% by 31 March 2008, our target
is 73% of Force Elements with no critical or serious weaknesses.
Appendix 1 includes a new table that illustrates average readiness
levels to date in 2005.
On page 23 of the Report, Figure 13 illustrated
UK military operations, including the numbers of personnel deployed.
The table covered the calendar years 1999 to 2004. An update of
the table, showing average figures for the first six months of
2005, is at Appendix 2.
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