Ministry of Defence: Public Expenditure
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the Committee of Public Accounts Fifth Report of Session 2026-27 (HC95), paragraph 2, for what reason did the department not have adequate accounting records in relation to audit evidence that £6.1 billion of assets under construction had been classified correctly.
Answered by Luke Pollard
The Department did not maintain appropriate accounting records to support the classification of £6.1 billion of AWE assets under construction due to inadequate legacy record-keeping. Many of these costs are historic, some dating back to 15 years old, and were capitalised by the Department as infrastructure, but not subject to regular review to confirm their validity or current value.
Strengthened governance and review processes are now in place to ensure this expenditure is appropriately assessed, consistently classified, and aligned to correct accounting standards.
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