Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of each armed forces service reporting their accounts and forecasting to the National Audit Office through a standardised methodology.

In 2012 the Secretary of State for Defence invited the National Audit Office to review the department's Equipment Plan for the first time. We have published a report in parallel with an NAO investigation, in each year since, to provide Parliament and the public with information about the Defence programme. This includes a summary of the Equipment Plan of each Front Line Command presented in a standardised format. As part of their annual investigation, the NAO speak to each of the Front Line Commands and review their financial position. All Front Line Commands use the same financial management system and report their financial position using a consistent methodology. The department's operating model delegates routine financial management to its Top Level Budget areas, in line with the outcome of the 2011 Levene Report.