Prospect says PAC report confirms defence skills chaos

Prospect says the Public Accounts Committtee report into managing change in the defence workforce painted a bleak picture of skills loss, rock bottom morale and a lack of understanding over what skills it will need in the future.

National secretary Steve Jary said: “The PAC has confirmed in its report what Prospect has been saying ever since the Strategic Defence and Security Review of 2010.

“The cuts to specialist staff are too far, too fast and completely unplanned. MOD is losing its ability to do technical work in-house. And it is having to pay through the nose to buy the work in. It’s a shambles. The risk to our armed forces grows by the day.”

Prospect has repeatedly warned that the loss of its in-house expertise is denuding the department of the skills it needs to deliver capability to the armed forces.

The union – via a Freedom of Information request – revealed in November 2011 that MOD spend on external technical assistance (the Framework Agreement for Technical Support) had soared as cuts to civilian specialists began to bite. Ten thousand civilians left the department in 2011.

Jary said: “MOD must listen to the criticism. The PAC, the National Audit Office, the Haddon Cave report into the Nimrod disaster and Prospect all agree that MOD’s direction of travel is determined by cost-cutting and not strategic objectives.

“The Haddon Cave report in 2009 made clear that cuts and constant change played a crucial role in the causes of the Nimrod crash. Now its dogged and blinkered approach brings means that there is a real risk that MOD will repeat the mistakes it made then.