Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking to ensure that 60% of the finance workforce in his Department hold a professional qualification.

The Government Finance Function has developed a Finance Career Framework for civilian personnel; within the framework there is set taxonomy that states which roles require a qualification. The Department is committed to ensuring that personnel in roles requiring the finance professional qualification hold the appropriate skills and experience to undertake the roles.

At 30 September 2023, there are 231 civilians working in roles that require the Level 7 finance qualification of which 193 (84%) are qualified with a further five studying for the qualification. There are a further 2462 civilians working in roles where the taxonomy states that Finance qualification (Level 4 and Level 7) is recommended or personnel are working towards the qualification, of which 1386 (56%) are qualified or studying for the qualification.

The Department has also recently undertaken a Level 4 Apprentice recruitment campaign, recruiting 20 posts at the start of their finance careers to improve the pipeline of qualified personnel. The Department also encourage internal personnel to achieve a professional finance qualification; apprenticeships are our preferred route to qualification however alternative routes to qualification include direct study, with local colleges, and centrally provided programmes like CIMA Accelerated.