Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to page 76 of the Defence Equipment & Support Annual Report and Accounts 2021 to 2022, updated on 31 March 2023, what were the prescribed processes that were deviated from in the six identified instances relating to senior responsible owners' completion of training and objectives.

Model Senior Responsible Owners (mSROs) are responsible for ensuring the quality and suitability of Business-Critical Models used for analysis, investigation, and forecasting purposes within Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) against prescribed policy and requirements. As outlined in the DE&S Annual Report and Accounts 2021-2022, six projects were assessed as complying with these requirements but with minor deviations relating mainly to the mSRO.

Five of these instances arose from the omission of the role and its responsibilities from annual objectives for mSROs and of these, four additionally related to failures to complete the relevant training during the year. One instance related to completion of relevant training and weaknesses in configuration control for documentation.

All of these deviations have since been resolved.