Dunservin 1 June 2008 said:The MoD's (and I suspect the country's) financial train crash expected in 2012 has been well 'telegraphed':
MOD Website - Defence Spending
The Ministry of Defence is committed to making value for money savings worth £2.7Bn over the CSR period to reinvest in Defence. Initiatives to achieve this include: a 5% year-on-year reduction in the MOD's administrative overhead, including a 25% saving in the Department's Head Office in London and the continued simplification of single Service Budgetary and headquarters structures.
MOD Website - Defence Spending
There have also been reports that changes to the funding of Urgent Operational Requirements (UORs) will affect the defence budget. The Treasury will continue to pay for UORs up front from the reserve budget. In the new Comprehensive Spending Review period, anything over an agreed amount (to be decided in the future) will be split 50:50 with MOD, with MOD repaying their 50% two years later.
£1bn Shortfall will cripple MoD (29 Oct 07)
During the 1980s, up to 4.4 per cent of the UK's GDP was spent on defence. That figure is now just 2.5 per cent. As part of the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR), the Government announced that the defence budget would rise from £34 billion next year to £36.9 billion in 2010/11. However, analysis handed to the Defence Select Committee suggests that the Ministry of Defence's spending plans will be around £350 million less than needed for each of the next three years; a shortfall of more than £1 billion in all.
MoD told to pay back Treasury (12 Nov 07)
Ministers will face questions next week about a move to claw back billions of pounds from the over-stretched Armed Forces budget. The Treasury has changed its rules for funding urgent supplies for troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan from its reserve fund, forcing the Ministry of Defence to meet more of the costs itself, The Daily Telegraph can reveal.
MoD uses equipment budget for daily costs (17 Dec 07)
Treasury documents show that the Ministry of Defence has been forced to transfer the money out of its capital budget to the fund it uses to pay for front-line operations. The MoD said the money had been transferred to cover the increasing price of fuel used by troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. It admitted the Treasury was not meeting the higher cost of operations.
Defence spending is lowest since the 1930s (19 Apr 07)
Britain spends less of its wealth on defence than Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey despite the constant demands placed on its Armed Forces, official figures show. According to the Conservatives, defence spending as a proportion of the UK's gross domestic product is at its lowest since 1930, before the UK recognised the rising threat of Nazi Germany.
What with delayed payments for equipment procurement, deferred debts to the Treasury and PFIs requiring settlement, so many of the MoD's chickens will be coming home to roost by the end of this CSR period that it will be neck deep in guano.