23.  Measurable changes in the representation of women at all ranks.

  Tables providing comparative figures as at 1 April 1998 and 1 April 1999 by rank and Service are set out below:

  24.  Quantifiable improvements in single living accommodation that have been achieved in the last 12 months.

  The RN has upgraded 202 single living accommodation bed spaces and a further 102 bed spaces are currently undergoing upgrades. The RAF has completed work on improvements to 524 bed spaces and improvements to a further 764 bed spaces is under way. The Army is currently in the process of improving 4,441 bed spaces.

  25.  Progress in developing a standardised method of measuring overstretch across the Services.

  25.1  Overstretch of Service personnel refers to the time an individual spends on operational activities, duties, etc above and beyond his or her single Service Harmony Guidelines,[2] which are a guideline on the level of Separated Service that is acceptable and provided for in the force structure of each Service.

  25.2  The RN and Army's Harmony Guidelines are based on the unit, ie ship, battalion or regiment. To understand better the impact of overstretch on Service Personnel, and to measure it more accurately, it is necessary to concentrate on the individual, rather than the unit.

  25.3  A common definition of Separated Service is being developed for use by all three Services. This recognises not just time spent away from the normal place of duty, but also the inability to enjoy harmony whilst at the place of duty, eg because of overnight or weekend guarding commitments. However, it is very likely that the acceptable level (Guideline) of Separated Service will differ in each Service. This is because of differences in the operatonal activities, commitments and force structures of each Service and the expectations of those joining. Separated Service Guidelines will need to reflect this. Thus, whilst the objective of achieving a standardised method of measuring Separated Service will be met, the Guidelines for measurement in each Service may well be different.

  25.4  In order to produce data capable of analysis some new IT systems will have to be developed. These will require additional resources. Investment in such systems will be dependent on priorities in this year's financial planning round. Currently the RN and Army personnel reporting systems focus primarily on establishing entitlements to pay and allowances. Whilst some aspects of these systems relate to the movements of individuals, they do not do so in a format which adequately records this aspect of Separated Service and therefore overstretch; nor do they permit interrogation for analysis.

  25.5  Royal Navy. Once a common definition of Separated Service and the amount of information to be recorded has been agreed by all the Services, the RN will study the options for proceeding with a system to deliver measurement of Separated Service. This will require investment in and the development of an appropriate system, which will take some time to become operational. Early indications suggest that further development of the Pay Administration may provide the best solution, but this will have to be tested by Investment Appraisal.

  25.6  Army. The Army is currently conducting a trial in Land Command of reporting Separated Service; it is anticipated that this will be adopted mid 2000 and implemented across the Command. Although covering some 73 per cent of the Army, it will only measure the average unit figures for Separated Service. This process will not permit detailed analysis of individual Separated Service, but it will provide more specific information than that currently available. Future improvements that are envisaged to the Army personnel reporting system would enable the recording of Separated Service for all individuals in the Army.

  25.7  Royal Air Force. In 1997, the RAF introduced a personnel reporting system capable of providing an analysis of Separated Service. The system is still being refined, but some analysis of the data collected is now possible. The target figure for the maximum number of nights individuals spend away from home on deployment or detachment in peacetime has been set as; 140 nights in one year, or 280 aggregated over a two year period, measured in periods of three nights or more. The RAF system will be used as the model for standardising the reporting of Separated Service, and therefore a measurement of overstretch, for personnel in all three Services.

  25.8  Future developments. In the medium term, it is proposed that Separated Service be reported on a single Service basis using existing or planned personnel reporting systems. In the long term it is proposed that the same reporting systems act as "feeders" to a Corporate Personnel Database through the Armed Forces Personnel Administration Agency. However, the development of the means to measure Separated Service will be dependent on the allocation of resources in this year's financial planning round.

  26.  Progress made in the review of the Service Discipline Acts.

  26.1  The Committee will be aware that the Army and Air Force Acts 1955 and the Naval Discipline Act 1957 (the Discipline Acts), which provide the statutory basis for the Armed Forces' disciplinary system, expire every five years unless extended by Act of Parliament. They are due to expire in 2001, and an Armed Forces Act needs to be enacted before then to extend them for a further five years. This legislation will also be an opportunity to amend the Discipline Acts in order, for example, to reflect relevant developments in the civilian criminal justice system.

  26.2  Work on identifying the proposed content of the Bill, which is expected to be introduced in the 2000-01 Session, is well under way.

  27.  Quantitative and qualitative measures of the success of recruitment programmes.

  27.1.  This information is provided in paragraph 23 and tables 3, 4, and 5 of the Departmental Performance Report. There has been a marked increase in the recruiting performance for all three Services in 1998-99 over the previous year. Some of the basic eligibility entry criteria, for example Nationality Extraction and Residency rules, have been relaxed in recent years making employment in the Armed Forces accessible to a wider circle of potential recruits. Nevertheless, recruits from this wider pool still have to meet the existing exacting entry standards.

  27.2  Although the number of Naval Service enquiries has gone down over the course of the last three years, the percentage of those who have gone on to apply has shown a steady rise. This trend has continued for entrants, with increasing numbers meeting the entry standard and joining the Service. Early indications for 1999-00 show that this pattern is continuing for Royal Navy ratings, and that Royal Marines recruiting is buoyant with initial targets being met.

  27.3  For Army recruitment, the number of soldiers enlisted has steadily increased over the past few years culminating, in 1998-99, in the best achievement level for 10 years, although there has not been the same improvement in respect of officers. Better targeted advertising campaigns in the past year have contributed significantly to the improvement in soldier numbers, and there are signs, for the current financial year, that they are having a similar effect on officer numbers. Indications are that the number of potential officers making enquiries is on the increase and the quality of candidates for the Regular Commissions Board has improved. Officer recruiting takes place over a longer timescale and the results of improvements now will not all filter through the system for a number of years. Performance in the current year is only measurable up to the end of June, but the Army are reasonably confident that they will come very close to the target—particularly for soldiers.

  27.4  The Royal Air Force measures the success of its recruiting programme by the percentage of the recruiting target it achieves. The officer recruiting achievement for 1998-99 was 89 per cent, which represented a small increase on the previous year. 1998-99 also saw an increase in ground trades recruitment with an achievement of 98.8 per cent, as against 89.8 per cent in the previous year. This improvement was probably the result of the "Rise above the Rest" advertising campaign launched in July 1998. The qualitative success of the recruiting programme will be judged by the numbers of recruits who fail their initial training courses or who leave the RAF during that time because it is discovered that they are not suitable for Service life.

On Funding

  28.  Details of any changes to the main areas of increased and reduced costs listed in paragraphs 385 and 386 of the Committee's SDR report (HC 138-I), including details of any other areas of significant change in expenditure.

  28.1  There have been no significant changes to our planned allocation of resources against the headings set out in these paragraphs.

  29.  Progress in realising the £700 million of estate disposals anticipated by the SDR (paragraph 386 of the Committee's SDR report (HC 138-I) refers).

  29.1  Satisfactory progress is being made against the Department's estate disposals target. Sales of defence estate completed in 1998-99 amounted to some £168 million, against a target of £150 million for that year. To meet the overall target of £700 million of estate disposals, annual targets have been set for the three following financial years (1999-2000—2001-02) for sales amounting to £251 million, £178 million and £108 million respectively.

  30.  Details of any revisions to the breakdown of "unprogrammed costs" given in the MoD's memorandum to the Committee (reproduced at HC 241-ii, page 44), and estimates for such costs (similarly broken down) for 1999-2000.

  30.1  The details of the unprogrammed costs of overseas operations for 1998-99 and 1999-2000 are set out below. Figures for 1998-99 represent actual outturn, those for 1999-2000 are a forecast and are therefore liable to change.

  1  Actual expenditure £0.010 million.

  2  NB Estimated outturn figures for Kosovo operations are not yet available.

  31.  An analysis of efficiency savings, by Top Level Budget-holder, for 1998-99 and 1999-2000, (as anticipated by the MoD's memorandum to the Committee, reproduced at HC 241-ii page 45 para 6).

  31.1  1998-99: John Barton's letter to the Clerk to the Committee of 5 August 1999 set out further detail of the Department's efficiency programme and plans. The breakdown of the £594 million of new efficiency improvements achieved in 1998-99 by each of the Department's Top Level Budget holders is detailed in the table below.

  All figures are £million at 1998-99 prices:

  31.2  1999-2000. The current forecast of efficiency improvements across defence for 1999-2000 is some £525 million. This is subject to confirmation as the year progresses. Details of individual Top Level Budget holders' forecasts are shown in the table below. This reflects the new Top Level Budget structure implemented in April 1999: changes include the establishment of the Chief of Joint Operations (CJO) as a separate TLB; the creation of the Defence Procurement Agency (DPA); the creation of the Defence Logistics Organisation (DLO); and the amalgamation of the VCDS and 2nd PUS TLBs to form a new Centre TLB.

  All figures are £million at 1999-2000 prices.

  32.  A progress report on the implementation of Resource Accounting and Budgeting within the MoD; covering progress in meeting the "trigger" targets, the production of dry-run accounts, the production of costed outputs data, cost communication, and outstanding issues still to be resolved.

  32.1  The Treasury's RAB implementation timetable requires all Government Departments to publish resource accounts from 1999-2000 and resource-based Supply Estimates from 2001-02. The first resource-based Survey is due to commence in January 2000. To enable Parliament to reach a decision about when to introduce resource-based Supply, the Treasury is providing three Parliamentary Committees (the PAC, the Procedure Committee and the Treasury Committee) with updates on departments' implementation progress at key review points, or "Trigger Points".

  32.2  Trigger Points 1 and 2 provided assurances that departments have suitable systems, policies and procedures in place to support the production of departmental resource accounts. All departments achieved the criteria set—Trigger Point 2 was completed in June 1999. Trigger Point 3 is the next key milestone and progress will be reported to Parliament early in the new year. Trigger Point 3 is very important as it requires the PUS, as Principal Accounting Officer, to provide assurances about the Department's readiness for the production of the 1999-2000 Resource Account. This will be the first account to be presented to Parliament. The Trigger Point also requires assurances about the systems that will underpin resource-based spending reviews. A key measure of progress to support Trigger Point 3 will be the NAO's audit opinion on the dry-run 1998-99 Resource Account which was produced in the Summer. The production of the Account was a very significant milestone for the Department and although it will not be published, the format and indicative figures will be made available to Select Committees on a privilege basis.

  32.3  The final Trigger Point requires all departments to produce illustrative resource-based Supply Estimates for 2000-01 in the spring of 2000. If accepted by Parliament, the basis for Parliamentary Supply will then change; legislative changes will be needed to support this.

  32.4  The first Survey to be carried out on a resource basis will begin in January 2000 and is planned to be completed by the summer recess. This will establish forward-looking resource limits for the three years 2001-02 to 2003-04.

  32.5  Progress on output costing is also progressing to target. Schedule 5 of the resource account (Resources by Departmental Aim and Objectives) has been submitted to the NAO with the main Account schedules. For 1998-99, an interim system of cost apportionment was used to attribute costs to Departmental Final Outputs. We expect to make progress in 1999-2000 towards an integrated output costing system.

  32.6  The implementation of RAB within the Department is on target. All management areas are producing monthly accounts; the first Departmental Resource Account was passed to the NAO on time and an exercise is currently underway to produce resource-based internal plans for 2000-01 and beyond. In parallel, discussions with the Treasury about the conduct of the 2000 spending review and the categorisation of expenditure continue. The formats of resource-based Supply Estimates are being further developed.

  32.7  One outstanding issue is the audit of the dry-run 1998-99 resource account. The NAO audit is now largely complete and discussions are taking place on the draft management letter. These discussions are mainly concerned with stocks, aircraft valuations and certain issues in two TLB accounts.

  33.  Details of further development of Output and Performance Analyses; including targets, performance indicators and achievements against OPA targets.

  33.1  Further development of the targets and performance indicators contained within the MOD's Public Service Agreement and Output and Performance Analysis is being taken forward as part of the 2000 Spending Review which should conclude next summer. Progress against the targets which fell in the 1998-99 financial year will be contained in the Department's 1999 Performance Report, which will be published alongside the Defence White Paper.

20 December 1999

RAF An individual airman should spend no more than 140 days on detached duty per annum or 280 days aggregated over two years. Back