Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking to ensure accountability and value for money from the defence nuclear budget.

There is a strong focus on efficiency and effectiveness to drive Defence Nuclear Enterprise (DNE) programmes to schedule and provide value for money to the taxpayer, and Defence has the right leadership and controls in place for this. Funding for programmes in the DNE is ringfenced within the Defence budget.

The Chief Defence Nuclear is an additional Accounting Officer for the nuclear ringfence. The ringfence helps to ensure nuclear spending is not reprioritised and helps separate any nuclear pressures from wider Defence spending. The ringfence has been in place since 2023.

The ringfence arrangements give the DNE greater flexibility to move funding between years, for example, bringing capital forward to secure long‑lead items at lower cost. That flexibility improves value for money and provides much more certainty for programme planning. Since the ringfence was set up, the DNE has used the budget exchange flexibilities agreed with HM Treasury each year to accelerate expenditure and achieve better value for money.

The Government is also taking further steps to enable the effectiveness, efficiency and value for money of nuclear programmes, for example, in its response to the Fingleton review, the review of the Single Source Contract Regulations, and in establishing a new parliamentary committee to scrutinise DNE programmes and expenditure following recommendations from the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and the Strategic Defence Review.