The Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Defence was asked five times by a member of the Defence Committee whether the Defence Investment Plan settlement is backloaded, telling MPs at one point that he was not sure he understood the definition and finally that there was not more he could give the committee.
Jeremy Pocklington was giving evidence alongside Wes Streeting, the Secretary of State for Defence.
Derek Twigg, the Labour member for Widnes and Halewood, put it to Streeting that John Healey’s resignation letter had said the funding settlement was insufficient, and that the extra support was backloaded when the pressure of operations and the imperative to speed up readiness falls in the first two years.
Streeting said extra funding was won by Dan Jarvis during the Defence Investment Plan process and brought in the Permanent Secretary, who had been party to those discussions.
Twigg asked: “Is it backloaded or not?” Pocklington began: “Additional resource DEL was given to the Department between the time of John Healey’s resignation and Dan Jarvis settling the DIP.”
Twigg interrupted to say he wanted a straight answer for the committee and repeated the question. Pocklington said: “The overall departmental spending is on a rising profile, so by the end of this Parliament it will be 27% higher in real terms than at the start.”
The chair, Tan Dhesi, intervened twice to ask for an answer, and Pocklington said: “I am keen to help the Committee. I can read out what our spending totals are for each year.” Asked again, he said: “I am not sure I understand the definition.”
He then said: “We received additional support between the time between the time of John Healey’s resignation and Dan Jarvis that meant that the spending power of the Department has actually increased by £15 billion. It was a lower amount at the time that John Healey resigned. We do have additional support, including, in particular, additional support for RDEL for readiness.”
Asked a final time whether he agreed with the previous Secretary of State on the point, Pocklington said: “I think the settlement had changed. There is not more that I can give to the Committee.”
On the trajectory of spending, Streeting told the committee that defence spending was 2.3 per cent of national income when Labour came to office and will be 2.7 per cent in 2027-28, and that the Chancellor has said he will plug a £4.7 billion gap at the Budget with more to come at the spending review.
Twigg pressed him on whether there is any commitment to reach three per cent by 2030. Streeting said: “But we would not normally, and we do not normally, set out ahead of spending reviews what the control totals will be.”
Dhesi told him: “It seems palpable to many of us that we are not meeting the moment, and that is why there is a sense of exasperation.” He noted the committee had visited Denmark, which has gone from spending 1.3 per cent of national income on defence to 4.99 per cent within four years.
Streeting said: “And in those cases, Chair, look at the cost of borrowing in those countries. We are not comparing like with like.” He said the debt-to-GDP ratio is around a hundred per cent and that roughly one in every ten taxpayer pounds goes on servicing debt interest.
All clear as mud, I just wonder how much their (politicians and Civil Servants) next pay rise will be, I wouldn’t mind betting that it is all set out and quite open about who is getting what. Under the Con’s it was 2.2% now Labour are saying it “will” go up to 2.7% at some point in the future with no realistic attempt to for fill our commitment of at least 3%. The defence spending at the moment is about 2.3% to 2.4% in real terms if we take out the £10billion that the MoD must save over the next year.