Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 9 March to Question 23543, what measures were taken to achieve efficiency savings in the Defence Equipment Plan 2018; and how much was saved through those measures over the 12 month period covered by that plan.

The Department has developed saving initiative programmes with industry experts, which work with individual projects and programmes to identify and deliver efficiency savings. The specifics of these initiatives vary by project, but include analysis of potential contractual improvements and that can be achieved while delivering performance improvements. Savings initiatives are developed and monitored using a maturity framework which standardises assessment of potential benefits and allows us to have greater confidence in the benefits that will be delivered. In financial year 2018/19 the Department achieved a total delivery of c£1.1 billion of efficiencies on equipment plan spending against a forecast of £0.9 billion in the Equipment Plan 2018 report. The Department is committed to meeting its 10 year target in full.