The Levene report on Defence Reform: An independent report into the structure and management of the Ministry of Defence addresses issues relating to Budgeting for Defence in the UK.
Executive Summary
The Defence Secretary launched Defence Reform in August 2010 as a fundamental review of how Defence is structured and managed. It is arguably the first such review since the 1980s. But many of the issues are not new, and have troubled similar reviews over the last century. How centralised or delegated to be? How joint Defence should be? Where the right balance between the military and civilians lies? Some present these issues as choices. We do not advocate such a choice. We believe that an effective MOD is one which builds on the strengths of the individual Services and the Civil Service, and does so within a single Defence framework that ensures the whole is more than the sum of its parts.
A key driver for this review has been the Department’s over-extended programme, to which the existing departmental management structure and behaviours contributed. Many of our proposals are designed to help prevent the Department from getting into such a poor financial position in the future, and to put it in the position to make real savings. This is not a distraction from providing the military capability the country needs; it is an essential enabler to it. Ultimately, an over-heated programme simply leads to deeper and less coherent cuts.
We have made 53 recommendations in total, the key ones of which are to:
• create a new and smaller Defence Board chaired by the Defence Secretary to strengthen top level decision making;
• clarify the responsibilities of senior leaders, including the Permanent Secretary and the Chief of the Defence Staff, to strengthen individual accountability;
• make the Head Office smaller and more strategic, to make high level balance of investment decisions, set strategic direction and a strong corporate framework, and hold to account;
• focus the Service Chiefs on running their Service and empower them to perform their role effectively, with greater freedom to manage, as part of a much clearer framework of financial accountability and control;
• strengthen financial and performance management throughout the Department to ensure that future plans are affordable and that everyone owns their share of responsibility for this;
• create a 4 star-led Joint Forces Command, to strengthen the focus on joint enablers and on joint warfare development;
• create single, coherent Defence Infrastructure and Defence Business Services organisations, to ensure enabling services are delivered efficiently, effectively and professionally;
• manage and use senior military and civilian personnel more effectively, with people staying in post for longer, and more transparent and joint career management.
These recommendations are only the first step. It is the people in the organisation at all levels who will need to make it work. We therefore conclude with recommendations on implementation and behaviours. Implementation must be driven by Ministers and the senior leadership of the Department. They will need to lead by example by acting in the ways on which the success of the new model depends. Crucially, they must take the tough decisions needed to balance the books, without which this model, or any other, will fail.
Taken together, we believe these recommendations, will create a model for running Defence that ensures that the whole is more than the sum of its parts and which has affordability at its core. That is what is needed if we are to have an organisation that is effective and efficient in delivering one of the most important roles in Government.
http://www.mod.uk/NR/rdonlyres/B4BA14C0-0F2E-4B92-BCC7-8ABFCFE7E000/0/defence_reform_report_struct_mgt_mod_27june2011.pdfAnd the response by the Secretary of State for Defence
http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/DefenceNews/DefencePolicyAndBusiness/DefenceSecretaryUnveilsBlueprintForDefenceReform.htm