Labour accuse MoD of 13bn in ‘wasted’ taxpayers’ money

Labour has published a “Dossier of waste in the ministry of defence” which claims the Government has wasted at least £13 billion of taxpayers’ money in 67 officially confirmed cases of MoD waste since 2010, with £4 billion wasted while the current defence Secretary has been in post.

Shadow defence secretary John Healey says Labour’s audit of waste shows that “the MoD is a uniquely failing department” and that “Ministers are failing British troops and British taxpayers”.

The report uses official published sources of information, and identifies 67 officially confirmed cases of waste, the cost of which could have been avoided or reduced by better MoD judgement or management.

The analysis found that MoD mismanagement has led to £4.8 billion of taxpayers’ money being handed out for cancelled contracts and £5.6 billion on overspent projects, while a further £2.6 billion of investment has been written off.

The Government is cutting the Army’s main battle tank numbers by a third to 148, while the cost to restore the Challenger 3 tank fleet to 227 is £430 million and the waste in 2019-2020 MoD Accounts alone was £406 million. The price tag for new Type 45 Destroyers is £1 billion, so the waste confirmed since 2019 alone could have covered the cost of four.

The National Audit Office (NAO) has declared the defence equipment plan “unaffordable” for the last four years in a row and has warned of a funding black hole in the defence budget of up to £17 billion.

A recent report by the Public Accounts Committee concluded that the Ministry of Defence’s procurement system is “broken and is repeatedly wasting taxpayers’ money”.

Launching the report, shadow defence secretary John Healey said:

“The ministry of defence has blown billions of pounds at the same time as cutting back our Armed Forces.

“The MoD is a uniquely failing department, yet Ministers have taken no serious steps to secure value for taxpayers’ money.

“This scale of waste is totally unacceptable. Ministers are failing British troops and British taxpayers.

“A Labour Government would get to grips with these deep-seated problems from day one. We would commission the NAO to conduct an across-the-board audit of MoD waste and make the MoD the first department subject to our new Office for Value for Money’s new tough spending regime.”

The MoD has claimed it is “serious about investing in Defence modernisation” and that it was prepared to take “tough decisions to replace old equipment and halt programmes that no longer fit requirements”.