The Nimrod Review - Official Documents

CHAPTER 26 – NEW PROCUREMENT STRATEGY
Contents
Chapter 26 – New Procurement Strategy
“[Procurement] is something that we must get right. There can be no room for complacency,
and given the current tempo of operations, we have no choice but to act with urgency.”
(Former Secretary of State for Defence, the Rt Hon. John Hutton MP, 4 June 2009) 1
Chapter 26 makes Recommendations for a New Procurement Strategy.
Summary
1. Poor Procurement damages In-Service Support:
(a) First, delays in new equipment Procurement can cause the Out-of-Service dates of old equipment
to be extended way beyond what was originally envisaged or is sensible and cause problems
with planning, spares, sourcing and long-term investment.
(b) Second, cost over-runs in Procurement can put severe financial strain on other parts of the MOD,
in particular In-Service Support, as pan-Department year-on-year cuts and savings are required
to make up for increasing Procurement shortfalls.
2. This has happened in the past and must not happen again.
3. But for the serious delays in the MRA4 programme, XV230 would probably not have been flying in
September 2006.
4. Procurement cost over-runs helped create the ‘bow wave’ of deferred financial problems which led
to the cuts, change, confusion, dilution and distraction and weakening of the Airworthiness system
in the wake of the 1998 Strategic Defence Review (1998 to 2006).
5. As Rt Hon. John Hutton said recently, sorting out Defence Procurement is an important and urgent
priority.
6. I recommend that Bernard Gray’s Report on Procurement is published without delay and appropriate
action taken as a matter of urgency. 3
1 Hansard Debates, Thursday 4 Jun 2009: Column 438.
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