Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, for what reason senior responsible owners have the power to declare initial operating capability, even when specified requirements have not been achieved.
Our senior responsible owners are closely engaged with their programme and project teams and clearly understand progress being made towards the delivery of the capabilities they are responsible for, including any challenges or risks to delivery. They are therefore able to weigh up all the factors to plan and manage course of action that deliver the right capabilities at the right time, including declaring initial operating capability.
Sometimes senior responsible owners are able to bring a capability into service more quickly than originally intended to deliver a benefit to Defence. In doing so they will undertake a rigorous assessment, identifying outstanding actions which require mitigation in the short-term and develop a plan to address these within an acceptable timeframe. This prevents a capability which can provide an operational benefit to defence being needlessly withheld.