Latest news with #PublicAccountsCommittee
Telegraph
3 hours ago
- Business
- Telegraph
Defence spending fails to account for spiralling cost of nuclear deterrent
Defence spending failed to account for the spiralling cost of Britain's nuclear deterrent, MPs have said. A report by the public accounts committee into the Ministry of Defence's spending plans has found that the rising costs of maintaining the nuclear deterrent and submarines risk squeezing budgets for 'conventional capabilities'. It comes after the Government recently published its strategic defence review (SDR), which aimed to show how the Armed Forces will adapt to future battlefields. It committed to renewing the nuclear deterrent while also spending £40 billion on new equipment for the Army and investing in a sixth-generation fighter. However, the committee's report called on the Government to be transparent regarding the 'specific cost details in the specific area of nuclear'. It called for the MoD to publish an equipment plan, which it said should provide a 'window' into the department's spending but has not been published since 2023. The report authors also said that they wanted 'to be assured on the risk of funding not being sucked away from other vital areas earmarked for growth in the SDR'. 'The Defence Nuclear Enterprise (DNE) remains a cornerstone of the UK's defence strategy,' it said. 'However, its cost continues to rise, and there is a risk that these increases will squeeze the budgets for conventional capabilities.' The report states that the nuclear budget was £10.9 billion, around 18 per cent of the whole defence budget in 2024-25. But forecast costs for the DNE for the 10 years from 2023 until 2033 have increased to approximately £128 billion, up from the £117.8 billion reported in the National Audit Offices's 2023 equipment plan report. 'The prioritisation of the DNE has led to government creating a ring-fence which prevents the department from using elsewhere money allocated to delivering the DNE, but which allows money to flow the other way,' the report said. 'The department recognises that one of the big capability questions it must answer through the SDR and its follow-on work is the balance of investment between nuclear and conventional capabilities. However, it has not yet worked this through.' It added: 'The increase in nuclear costs may restrict the money available for other important needs.' The report suggests such other 'important needs' range from improving poor accommodation for troops and addressing the military's retention and recruitment crisis. Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, chairman of the committee, said: 'In the context of continuing geopolitical uncertainty, this continued delay in providing figures for public scrutiny is a truly unacceptable state of affairs. 'This committee has made a number of recommendations to government to offer it another chance to cooperate. 'There is also a material risk of the costs of the nuclear deterrent beginning to act as a ratchet mechanism. 'As well as a fully worked-up picture of equipment overall, we require specific cost details in the specific area of nuclear, to be assured on the risk of funding not being sucked away from other vital areas earmarked for growth in the SDR.' He added: 'If government does not come forward with the requisite details very soon, Parliament will be unable to critically assess the underpinnings of the SDR, and it will remain to be seen how the public can thereby ascertain whether what is planned, including the pledge of 2.5 per cent of GDP on defence spending, is deliverable. 'The MoD can, however, be rightfully proud of the role it has played in supporting Ukraine in resisting Russia's brutal invasion. 'The adaptability and responsiveness of government in constantly innovating both in the assistance provided and in its own processes has been truly commendable, and this committee thanks all involved for their continuing efforts.'
Irish Times
a day ago
- Politics
- Irish Times
Stormont is slow, afraid of new thinking and costly, says report
Reading the latest report by the Belfast-based Pivotal think tank into the operations of the Stormont Executive, Assembly and Northern Ireland Civil Service (NICS) is like watching an episode of the much-loved 1980s TV series Yes, Minister, but minus the jokes. Throughout, the fruits of months of conversations with 30 former ministers, senior civil servants, special advisers and some of those who deal frequently with Stormont on policy questions reveals a litany of failures, blockages and short-sightedness. As always in organisations, the principal issues centre on culture. 'Civil servants are broadly committed and enthusiastic, but they are held back by a burdensome system. Risk aversion acts as a brake on progress at every stage,' the report says. 'This seems to have got worse in recent years. Innovation is not always encouraged, and change is often resisted. While delivery is a priority in principle, it doesn't always translate into practice.' READ MORE Too often, Pivotal says, officials make decisions out of fear of a subsequent Northern Ireland Audit Office report, or a grilling before Stormont's Public Accounts Committee (PAC), or being the subject of a judicial review. The PAC uses its time and profile to go through departments' 'bad holiday snaps' in search of a 'gotcha' moment that will dominate the evening TV headlines, it says. Even here, it frequently falls short of the mark as a spending watchdog, with one retired civil servant witheringly saying officials 'wouldn't be afraid' of appearing before it given its 'poor questioning and scrutiny skills'. While they are not afraid of audits, or the PAC, they are afraid of the press, something that has got worse since news reporting exposed the 'cash for ash' scandal, which has cost NI taxpayers £500 million that they know about, but probably more. [ Cash for ash scandal: Everybody is to blame, nobody is to blame Opens in new window ] In an effort to avoid taking responsibility, officials are overly willing to hire consultants and, as a consequence, fail to build up the skills of their staff, the report says. The sums being spent are now causing 'alarm' among those interviewed. A business leader, speaking anonymously, as every interviewee does in the report, believes Stormont is 'creating middle-class industries'. Consultants have become 'an ordinary part of working' in Stormont's hard wiring, according to most of those who contributed. Too often, however, as one retired senior official put it acidly, they 'borrow your watch and tell you the time'. Inside the bureaucracy, things move at 'a glacial pace', according to a former minister, with officials unwilling to quickly change their ways of working or move into new roles. 'Pace is not what civil servants do well. They do process well,' said a business leader. If it does process well, Stormont does not do outcomes. Interviewees were, Pivotal reports, shocked at the lack of attention given to whether a programme's aims are achieved, with the focus instead on ensuring all the money allocated is spent. 'The system needs to be turned on its head and see the reason for doing this is not just the pound notes, it's actually about changing the place,' said one business representative experienced in Stormont's ways. Bureaucracy 'can thwart change easily', said one former minister, while a former special adviser believed the system often thought more about 'finding their people something to do' than having them do something productive. Too often, life inside the Stormont bureaucracy is about management rather than change. 'Every day a business will ask 'How do I make my business better – quicker, stronger, better?' There is very little of this in the NICS,' said one business leader. If officials like talking to consultants, they do not like talking to anyone else, the Pivotal report states. They are 'not inclined to engage in difficult conversation' with outsiders, said a former minister. The voluntary sector was scathing of the way it feels it is treated by Stormont. Often, according to the report, the sector gets little more than 'lip service', while consultations that do take place are regarded as box-ticking exercises rather than meetings where they are listened to. Stormont departments operate in silos, the report notes, unwilling to co-operate with colleagues in other departments. Jayne Brady, the head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service, enjoys no formal authority over departmental permanent secretaries, the report notes, who are instead accountable only to their ministers for policy, to the NI Department of Finance for spending, and to the Stormont Assembly. Ministers are said to get bogged down in day-to-day matters rather than the bigger issues, and they are seen as having a preference for making announcements rather than the drudgery of reaching long-term goals. Their behaviour can delay or even halt delivery, particularly when matters political, or local, get in the way. One former official delivered a backhanded compliment, saying: 'I have never worked with anybody who didn't really care'. Stormont's political structures – where the Executive does not operate by collective responsibility and where ministers are appointed by their parties – does not help, the report finds. 'Many interviewees pointed to political disagreements that slowed down delivery of important policies, whether those disagreements were about policy design, who would benefit, or local impacts.'
Irish Examiner
2 days ago
- Business
- Irish Examiner
Department finds 'positive indicators' of increasing housing supply, committee to hear
The head of the department of housing says that 'positive indicators' have emerged in terms of increasing housing supply, but that 'major challenges' remain. The department's secretary general Graham Doyle will on Thursday tell the Public Accounts Committee that in 2023 the number of new homes delivered was up 10% on that delivered in 2022, exceeding the Government's overarching Housing For All plan by nearly 13%, with 32,695 properties completed over the 12 months. He will add that 41,224 planning permissions were granted for new homes in 2023. However, he will also acknowledge the ongoing issues with delivering adequate supply for Ireland's population. 'At a broader level we continue to see major challenges around increased demand, increased costs and complex issues around unlocking supply at the pace and scale required. "This will remain an area of acute focus for the Department,' Mr Doyle is expected to say. Comptroller and Auditor General Seamus McCarthy is expected to tell the committee his agency has established that the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive provided a number of funding advances to the Peter McVerry trust between March and September 2023 without the Government's approval. After it emerged that there were serious issues with the financial fundamentals of the trust in 2023, the Government was forced to bail the charity out to the tune of €15m. Mr McCarthy will also tell the committee that while €2m in normal funding provided to the trust was approved by the department at the same time, €5.3m was provided by the executive with none of the advances approved. The trust will not be present at the hearing, having declined an invitation to attend the PAC for a second time citing the investigations into its finances which are still in train. Read More
Daily Mirror
7 days ago
- Daily Mirror
Hundreds of thousands could be living in unsafe buildings 8 years after Grenfell
A huge campaign began at national and local level by leaseholders demanding their buildings' owners or constructors, and local authorities, fixed the potential fire hazards Hundreds of thousands of people are feared to live in unsafe buildings eight years after the devastating Grenfell Tower fire. A nationwide scandal erupted after 72 people were killed in the west London blaze in June 2017, when fire ripped through the block due to flammable cladding wrapped around the building. It quickly emerged that developments and social housing across the UK had been covered in similar or the same material. A huge campaign began at national and local level by leaseholders demanding their buildings' owners or constructors, or local authorities, remediated their tinder box blocks. In 2022, the government banned the specific type of cladding which allowed the blaze to spread so rapidly, meaning metal composite panels with an unmodified polyethylene core now cannot be used on any building of any height. Previously, the ban applied only to buildings higher than 11m. But as of March 31, government data showed that 500 of the 2,718 high and mid-rise social housing blocks with 'life-critical fire-safety cladding defects' have unclear remediation strategies. While on March 21, the Public Accounts Committee said that up to 7,000 unsafe buildings had yet to be identified. Its report added the government had 'yet to find a way to secure financial contributions from manufacturers of dangerous cladding'. The Committee said the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) had not made enough progress to identify and fix the estimated 9,000 to 12,000 buildings over 11 metres that may need work. At the end of 2024, work had not yet started on half of the 5,000 buildings already within the UK Government's portfolio, it said. In Leeds, Rachael Loftus 48, is still fearing for her life inside the Timblebeck building, which is part of the Fearn Island Mills development. She bought her flat in 2007, having no idea of the risks the cladding on the building posed. Rachael, who is part of campaign group The Leeds Cladding Scandal, said: 'Along with the timber cladding on the outside of the building, we have also been told that this polycarbonate sheeting should never have been used on a residential building, because it's likely to melt if the temperature got very high. 'The other problem is that the insulation behind the outer wall is polystyrene, so that would melt and be quite toxic in the event of a fire.' Rachael - with the support of the Ministry of Housing - last year took the freeholders, Grey GR, to court to try and force them to start the process of remediation. As a result of the civil case, the work to make the cladding safe must be completed by November next year (2026). 'They have done nothing yet,' she said. 'In fact they have already started saying that they're not sure they will hit the November 2026 target. 'All of the surveys have said the same thing, that everything we knew about the building in 2020 is exactly the same now, and they've still not done a single thing.' She said there has been an 800% increase in her service charge, at £500 per month, while also forking out more than £600 each month for insurance, which has rocketed from £150 per year since the faults were discovered after Grenfell. 'We're paying these bills which are being caused by the delays of the freeholders,' she added. 'You'd think you'd get a discount for living somewhere unsafe, but obviously not. 'The freeholder has been saying for the past five-and-half years that 'safety is our number one priority'. We were initially told it would be sorted in two or three weeks.' She said leaseholders were unable to sell their flats and were 'stuck' in them while values nose-dived. ' Theresa May promised on that morning after the fire: 'Never Again', but there are many buildings that will testify that this 'never again' is infinitely possible. 'There have been a number of fires in buildings and only because they've been on high alert there haven't been losses of life. But it's just luck. 'We're living with a very high level of risk. If a building where 72 people died doesn't give the government a reminder - as it talks about house building and deregulation - of the risks that exist, then nothing will.' A spokesperson for Grey GR said it was not involved in the development of Fearn Island Mills and said it was awaiting approval from the Building Safety Regulator for its remediation plan. It added: 'The safety of residents has been and remains Grey's utmost priority.'
Glasgow Times
12-06-2025
- Business
- Glasgow Times
HMRC boss ‘regrets' frustrations over £49m phishing scam disclosure
The revenue body has faced criticism and questions over why MPs were not informed earlier about the incident. On June 4, it was disclosed that HMRC had lost £47 million after a phishing scam breached tens of thousands of tax accounts. Following updated information published by HMRC on Tuesday, that figure was revised upwards, to £49 million. Senior civil servants at HMRC told the Treasury Committee that 100,000 people had been contacted, or were in the process of being contacted, after their accounts were locked down in what they said was an 'organised crime' incident which started last year. The Treasury Committee, which held a live session on June 4, wrote to Mr Marks earlier this week, telling him that: 'To discover this information during a session from press reports and without adequate time for the committee to review the information in detail is unacceptable.' During a Public Accounts Committee hearing on Thursday, Mr Marks told MPs: 'We welcome your scrutiny.' Mr Marks described the incident as a 'serious, and (an) unacceptable loss of £49 million to the Exchequer, affecting 100,000 of our customers, which is about 0.2% of the PAYE caseload'. He added: 'Given we collect over £840 billion a year, the judgment on materiality is different for HMRC perhaps than other government departments. 'But nonetheless, I agree with the point with regards (to) disclosure, and I will do that in my annual report, which I will publish next month for the first time, so that is, again, properly done according to the rules under public money. 'The final thing really to say, I do regret if there's been any frustration in terms of our handling of this, that was not our intent at all.' He said he would respond to correspondence he had received this week with more detail. Mr Marks continued: 'I welcome your point, with regards (to) the opportunity to have in-private briefings, the level of security threats is significant and constant. 'The team detected and disrupted this one well. There was a criminal investigation. And in (a) private hearing, I'm happy to bring the head of the fraud investigation service, my chief security officer, to explain more about some of that detail but also the threat environment and the way in which we are ensuring HMRC is secure now and secure for the future as well.' Earlier this week, an HMRC spokesperson said: 'We faced a series of evolving and complex criminal attempts to access online tax accounts and our priority has been to protect customers and their accounts. 'Our customers suffered no financial loss as a result. 'Thorough investigation has been necessary to understand the extent of this activity and pursue the criminals responsible. 'We've worked closely with the Information Commissioner's Office throughout to ensure we met our obligations.'
