By Vivienne Russell | 11 June 2014
The Ministry of Defence’s programme to cut the size of the army has left the force exposed to significant risks that could affect its ability to achieve its objectives, the National Audit Office said today.
Auditors said the decision to implement the Army 2020 programme, which reduced the size of the regular army by around 20,000 and increased the number of reserves by 11,000, was taken without any appropriate feasibility testing. It failed to assess whether it would be possible to recruit and train the required number of reserves by 2018/19.
Just over 3,000 reserves were recruited last year, but recruitment targets will need to triple by 2017/18 if the army is to maintain its trained strength, the NAO said.
And while the planned reduction in regular numbers is ahead of target, recruitment of new regulars was also behind schedule last year. It had planned to recruit 9,715 soldiers but only managed to attract 6,366 – a shortfall of 34%.
‘Military judgement played an important role in decisions but committing to moving towards an army structure with fewer regular soldiers and an increased number of reserves within the planned timescale should have been subject to more rigorous testing of feasibility,’ said NAO head Amyas Morse.
‘The department and army must get a better understanding of significant risks to Army 2020 – notably, the extent to which it is dependent on other major programmes and the risk that the shortfall in recruitment of new reserves will up the pressure on regular units.’
The NAO also noted that the army’s recruitment contract with Capita had been subject to difficulties that had affected recruitment performance. Problems included the MoD’s failure to provide the ICT infrastructure critical to the success of the project.
‘This means poor recruitment performance cannot be distinguished from the impact of ICT failings,’ the watchdog said.
Responding to the NAO’s findings, General Sir Peter Wall, chief of the general staff, said: ‘The NAO report fails to capture the nature of the austerity we faced at the time these decisions were made.
‘The army has designed a novel and imaginative structure which best meets the challenges we are likely to face within the resources made available.’
Defence Secretary Philip Hammond added: ‘The MoD has always been clear that the numbers in the reserves would fall before they increased, but we have now seen the trained strength of the reserves climb for the first time in nearly 20 years.
‘The well publicised IT issues in the Army Recruiting Centre are being addressed, the application process has been simplified, medical clearance procedures have been streamlined and the Army is running a high-profile recruitment campaign.’
