MOD head praises civilian contribution to Defence

Sir Bill presented his lecture to members of think tank, the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), today, Wednesday 9 December 2009.

In his address, he detailed the crucial role that people across Defence, both military and civilian, play in tackling the challenges facing Defence. He said:

"The last four years, since I took on this job in late 2005, have been turbulent times for the MOD, among the most demanding in the Department's recent history.

"If the military deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan have stretched the Armed Forces, which they have, they have also stretched the Department that exists to support Defence Ministers, generate military capability and support these deployed forces."

Sir Bill commented on the sheer diversity of Defence, the jobs people do, the quality with which they do them, the extent to which they depend on each other and the extent to which it is a joint enterprise between the military and civilians.

Talking about the challenges the MOD faces, he said the first and most obvious challenge is Afghanistan:

"We have been clear from the outset that support for the operation is the Department's highest priority.

"In the summer, the Defence Secretary, the CDS [Chief of the Defence Staff] and I reinforced that message by saying that Afghanistan was our main effort.

"Not our only effort, because there are important standing tasks, such as the provision of the nuclear deterrent, which still need to be done; and there are long-term interests that need to be protected.

"But our main effort, in the sense that where there are judgements to be made about priorities, we give priority to support for the operation."

Sir Bill then reflected on the people that are delivering support to the Afghanistan operation, that he described as military and civilian teams working in the most committed way to deliver logistic support and equipment to the front line, in a rapidly changing military environment:

"I think of the counter-IED [improvised explosive device] team, project staff, MOD scientists, military officers, all working long hours, brimming with enthusiasm, knowing that if they get it right, keep pace with and exceed the enemy's development of IEDs, through their hard work and innovation they will save lives.

"I think of the teams working on urgent operational requirements - again mixed military and civilian striving to get better protected armoured vehicles into theatre.

"I think also of the much-maligned 'pen-pushers', working at Joint Headquarters and in the Main Building, in the most intensive conditions, to ensure that Ministers get intelligent, properly thought through reports on campaign progress and advice on policy and parliamentary business. These are unsung roles, but they are essential to the overall effort."

Sir Bill said the nation owes a huge debt to the brave men and women who are facing severe risks and taking horrendous casualties at and close to the front line. But, he continued:

"There are others playing essential supporting roles, including around 100 MOD civilians. They include staff who provide close support and advice for military commanders, some who deal daily with angry Afghans seeking compensation for damage or injury, and a woman police officer I met recently who voluntarily deployed to Afghanistan for six months to train and mentor the Afghan National Police, and spent her time developing and training female Afghan police officers and promoting their standing within the organisation."

Sir Bill said that it is absolutely essential that as a department we are ready and able to play our part in supporting the Afghanistan mission:

"That means keeping our people, all of them, motivated, building on their natural enthusiasm, and, as leaders, leaving them in no doubt about where our priorities lie."

The second big challenge for the MOD, Sir Bill said, is to balance the cost of our programme with the money available to pay for it.

He said there is no doubt that the unit cost of equipment at the leading edge of technology has for many years been increasing more rapidly than general inflation, even if pound-for-pound one is acquiring more capable equipment.

And that people costs, military and civilian, which, in a people business, account for more than a third of the budget, have been growing more rapidly than general inflation.

And, he added, as Bernard Gray's recent report highlighted, the cost of equipment projects are underestimated and reprofiling them over longer periods increases their eventual cost.

Sir Bill said the biggest challenge is to get out of this cycle:

"The steps that the Defence Secretary announced in publishing Bernard Gray's report, a ten-year indicative budget, greater transparency about the affordability of plans against that budget, stronger central control of the programme, greater clarity about responsibilities and accountabilities of the main players within MOD; these are all definitely steps in the right direction.

"The post-election Defence Review, to which all three major parties are now committed, is also an opportunity to get this right for the longer term.

"However Ministers decide to do that, improved efficiency is bound to be part of it.

"The MOD, perhaps more than any other Government Department, has demonstrated that it is possible to use efficiency savings to make more money available for the front line.

"In the 2004 Spending Review, we committed to £2.8bn worth of efficiency savings. We met and exceeded that by £200m by the end of the period, through initiatives such as logistics transformation, better management of our vehicle fleet, reforms in personnel management, and rationalisation of the Defence estate.

"In the 2007 Spending Review, we committed to another £2.7bn of savings, subsequently increased to £3.15bn - and we are working hard to deliver them."

But, he added, we have to be careful about this:

"The Haddon-Cave report on the tragic Nimrod accident demonstrates how important it is not to lose sight of vital elements of our job such as safety. But safety and value for money are not in conflict. We simply have to organise ourselves so that we achieve both."

Sir Bill said that over the last 12 years, partly as a result of the efficiency programme, the number of MOD civilians has fallen from 133,290 to 86,200, a reduction of more than 45,000:

"Some of these represent jobs outsourced to private sector providers. But most reflect change in the way we do business, such as programmes to reduce staff numbers in our central London offices, an extensive business improvement change programme within our Defence Equipment and Support function, improved ways of working across Defence, and the continued rationalisation of the Defence estate.

"That process has to continue, and we are already assuming further reductions over the next few years. We need an intelligent debate within Defence about how best to achieve that, which takes account of what our civilian staff actually do, and doesn't treat them, as some media comment does, as if they were merely an overhead to the main effort."

He added that of the MOD's 86,000 civilians, around half directly support the front line commands, including about 1,000 firefighters, 1,400 teachers, nearly 2,000 instructors, and 1,800 scientists, engineers and technicians.

Around 11,000 are industrial staff, many of them like the Defence Support Group who are overhauling tanks to be returned to Afghanistan, doing manual work which in many other countries would be done by uniformed military staff.

Almost 10,000 are locally engaged overseas, 9,700 are in trading funds like the Met Office which generate income and pay their way, and 2,300 are in the Royal Fleet Auxiliary, providing essential support to naval warships at sea, a role undertaken by naval personnel in other countries.

Only two per cent are in the Head Office in London. Sir Bill added:

"These are people who deserve our gratitude and support. They are all intrinsic to the Defence effort."

Sir Bill also talked about the civilianisation of jobs which do not require specific military skills or knowledge but which would otherwise have to be done by military personnel:

"Just as in the police, it has to make sense in Defence for expensively trained uniformed staff to be able to focus on the core military work they were trained to do.

"The involvement of civilians in key enabling tasks such as the maintenance of aircraft and the delivery of strategic communications to the front line are good examples of the benefits of civilianisation.

"Good examples also of the essential partnership between military and civilian that underpins Defence."

He said that the third big challenge Defence faces in the next year is to support Ministers through a Defence Review which is likely to be one of the most challenging and far-reaching for many years:

"This is core Department of State business. We already have a strong team working to prepare the ground for whichever party wins the next election.

"The fact that the Defence Secretary has encouraged us to do this work and plans to publish a consultative paper early next year is both a strength and an opportunity.

"The review when it comes needs to be grounded in wider national security policy and, depending on the outcome of the election, it is possible that it will be part of a wider security and defence review.

"Either way, it will need to be intellectually robust; to explore thoroughly and imaginatively the future for which we are planning Defence capability; to assess in particular the balance between inherently unknowable but potentially serious longer term threats and requirements that arise more from our current experience; and to factor in a realistic, not pessimistic, but realistic view of the resources that are likely to be available and how we can get best value from them."

He concluded, saying:

"These three big challenges are what dominate the Defence landscape. We will stand to be judged on how well we rise to them.

"My main message is that they all depend in one way or another on the commitment and enthusiasm of our people.

"We shouldn't, and I don't, take that commitment for granted.

"The military rightly receive plaudits, not least for their performance in theatre which is nothing short of inspiring. But the MOD civilians play an essential role at all levels. They are proud to be part of the team, and I am proud to lead them."