1 Introduction
1. The Ministry of Defence's Annual Report and Accounts
2006-07, published on 23 July 2007, comprise the Annual Performance
Report and the Consolidated Departmental Resource Accounts for
the year ended 31 March 2007.[1]
This is the fifth year in which the Ministry of Defence (MoD)
has combined its Annual Performance Report and Consolidated Departmental
Resource Accounts into one document and the second year in which,
in line with most other Government departments, the MoD has published
its Accounts before the Summer parliamentary recess.
2. Our inquiry examined the Annual Performance Report
and the Consolidated Departmental Resource Accounts. We took evidence
from Mr Bill Jeffrey,[2]
the MoD's Permanent Under Secretary of State (PUS), and Mr Trevor
Woolley, the MoD's Finance Director, on 13 and 28 November 2007.
We also examined issues about the Comprehensive Spending Review
settlement for defence which was announced on 25 July 2007.[3]
We received written evidence from the MoD[4]
and from the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS)[5].
The oral evidence and the written evidence are printed with this
report. We are grateful to the National Audit Office (NAO) for
providing written briefing on the performance of the MoD. The
NAO briefing is available on the Committee's website.[6]
3. We must record one difficulty that occurred when
assembling evidence for this report. In preparation for our evidence
session on 13 November 2007, Committee staff wrote to the MoD
on 9 October 2007 requesting written responses to a range of questions
by 31 October 2007. The deadline was extended to 5 November 2007.
The written evidence, with a copy of the MoD Public Service Agreement
Performance Report: Quarter 1 2007-2008, was finally received
on 12 November, the day before the scheduled evidence session.
At that session, we asked Mr Jeffrey why the written evidence
had been received so late. He accepted that the written evidence
should have come to the Committee earlier and apologised for this.[7]
We considered the information provided to be so central to the
issues we wanted to examine that we decided to rearrange the evidence
session for a future date.[8]
We asked for a full account of the delay in sending us the written
evidence we had sought.[9]
He wrote to us on 15 November 2007 setting out the reasons for
the delay and assuring us that lessons had been learned for the
future.[10]
4. It was unhelpful of the MoD to provide the
written evidence we had requested only a day before the evidence
session we had scheduled. We expect better cooperation from the
Department in future, and accept the Permanent Secretary's assurance
that lessons have been learned and that such failings will not
happen again. This is essential if Parliament is to undertake
its role of scrutinising the work of the MoD effectively.
5. For the second year running, the MoD Annual Report
and Accounts have won the PriceWaterhouseCoopers and National
Audit Office Building Public Trust Award 'For Telling It How It
Is'. This is the first time that any organisation has won this
award more than once.[11]
We welcome the improvements made to the Annual Report and Accounts
2006-07, such as the greater use of cross-referencing and note
that the MoD won the 'Building Public Trust Award' for its Annual
Report and Accounts for the second year running.
1 Ministry of Defence, Annual Report and Accounts
2006-07, HC 697 (Hereafter referred to as MoD, HC 697) Back
2
In the 2008 New Years Honours, Mr Jeffrey was appointed Knight
Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) Back
3
HC Deb, 25 July 2007,Cols 865-867 Back
4
Ev 16-26, 31-35 Back
5
Ev 27-30 Back
6
National Audit Office, Performance of the Ministry of Defence
2006-07, Briefing for the Defence Committee, November 2007.
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200708/cmselect/cmdfence/memo/ara/ucmara02.pdf Back
7
Q 3 Back
8
Q 10 Back
9
Ibid Back
10
Ev 27 Back
11
Ministry of Defence website, Defence News, 16 October 2007,
MoD wins corporate reporting award for second year Back
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