Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether his Department has incurred additional costs as a result of operating the National Armaments Director (NAD) Group under an acting director rather than a permanent one.

This Government is delivering the deepest defence reforms in over 50 years. On 31 March 2025 the National Armaments Director (NAD) Group was stood up – creating a new export to end acquisition system design to cut waste and fix the broken procurement system this Government inherited.

Andy Start was appointed interim NAD and had been acting as NAD since the NAD Group was stood up on 31 March 2025. He conducts, all of the responsibilities the Head of the NAD Group must, regardless of the fact he is an interim appointment.

To the end of August 2025, the Ministry of Defence (MOD) expended £4.2 million in workforce costs on the establishment of the National Armaments Director (NAD) Group. This expenditure was drawn from existing resource within MOD, and is not a net increase for the Department. This expenditure is broken down into Enabling Workstreams (£3.1 million) and Organisational Change (£1.1 million).

In addition, in the same period the Department spent £0.5 million on external assistance in support of the establishment of the NAD Group.

The NAD Group design phased is scheduled to conclude on 31 March 2026, at which point costing will be able to be confirmed.

The Department has incurred no additional cost as a result of operating the NAD Group under Andy Start.