Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to paragraph 2.6 of the report by the National Audit Office, The Ajax programme, published on 11 March 2022, what assessment he has of the adequacy of allocating 10 per cent of the senior responsible officer's time to the AJAX Armoured Fighting Vehicle programme in 2017.

In the light of the scope, scale and complexity of the programme, 10% of the Senior Responsible Owner’s (SRO’s) time in 2017 was clearly inadequate. After a time reallocation in the first quarter of 2018 the SRO’s time on Ajax increased to 30%. The current SRO is full time on Ajax with the only additional responsibility held being Head of Profession which accounts for on average 5% of his time.