Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps she is taking to reduce the affordability gap between the equipment plan and her Department's budget.

We recognise that the Equipment Plan is currently unaffordable and have set out a range of measures in response to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report to put the programme on a sustainable financial footing. We have committed to providing further progress updates to the Committee by the end of this month on the development of financial functional skills and our engagement with industry.

Our response to the PAC report was published in the Treasury Minutes on 1 April 2019 and can be found at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/treasury-minutes-april-2019