MOD 'close to finalising' Defence Investment Plan, department's top civil servant says
The Ministry of Defence's chief civil servant has said they are "close to finalising" the Defence Investment Plan (DIP), but stressed there is no date for its publication.
Jeremy Pocklington, the MOD's Permanent Secretary, said the department is working incredibly hard to resolve outstanding issues.
The DIP will set out what equipment is needed for the UK's Armed Forces over the next decade.
It should have been published before Christmas, but the Government is still making up its mind on the details.
MPs have raised concerns about the delays to Mr Pocklington.
"I'm afraid that I haven't got a date for the committee today. We are close to finalising it," Mr Pocklington said.
"We are working incredibly hard to resolve all the outstanding issues that we have."
Rupert Pearce, the MOD's National Armaments Director, admitted that the situation was having a significant impact.
"At the margins, there are some things we are waiting for the DIP to do, and that delay is costing people," he said.
"We don't like that. We want to get this DIP done and through it and out the other side. But every day we continue to do stuff. We continue to put things on contract.
"We're busy. We're busy in Ukraine. We're busy supporting our allies in the Middle East. We continue to sign up to large and small contracts alike. So, we're not closed for business."
Time is money in procurement, Mr Pearce said.
With no clear timetable, however, MPs did not get any concrete answers on when the DIP will eventually see the light of day.
"I think there's a credibility issue around the DIP being serially delayed, and we need to recover that position both with our UK defence ecosystem and with our allies as well," Mr Pearce added.
The DIP is part of the Strategic Defence Review 2025, which outlined the Government's plans for military spending to help meet the threats posed to the UK in the coming years.
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