Fifth Report Of Session 2009 10

Fifth report of Session 2009-10 : Documents considered by the Committee on 6 January 2010, including the following recommendations for debate, Financial management; Mutual legal assistance in criminal proceedings, report, together with formal Minutes

work of committees In 2008-09 : Second report of session 2009-10, report, together with formal minutes and Appendices

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is unaware of the location of radios worth £184 million, and is unable to provide evidence of the existence and condition of assets worth £6.3 billion. This shortfall in accounting is reflected in the decision by the National Audit Office to qualify the MoD accounts for the fourth successive year. The Committee thinks this year's qualification should have been foreseen, given that it was a clear requirement on all Government departments to adopt the relevant reporting standards from 2009-10. It is unsatisfactory that the MoD expects their stock control problems to continue for another two to four years. The report notes the period of intense change that the MoD is going through, and recommends that any cuts to staffing levels must be appropriate for future business need and managed with care. The Committee will study the outcomes of the report of the Defence Reform Unit (ISBN 9780108510663) to ensure that the MoD retains the right skills. This will need to be reflected in decisions on redundancies through voluntary exit and otherwise so that the Department is not left without the right skills and experience required for effective performance. The Committee wishes to be assured that decisions on the scrapping of assets before the end of their useful life have been made on the basis of a sound cost-benefit analysis, taking into account the savings to be achieved and the effect of the loss of capability.

Fourteenth report of Session 2009-10 : Documents considered by the Committee on 10 March 2010, report, together with formal Minutes

Additional written evidence is contained in Vol. 2, available on the Committee website at www.parliament.uk/welshcom

The Government's motoring agencies are undergoing reorganisation and are introducing digital services; both changes have potential to bring welcome improvements. The Government has a mixed approach to organisational change in the agencies with different emphasis on efficiency savings, restructuring, and private sector involvement across the agencies. It needs to do more to explain the future direction for all the motoring agencies and how it will create a more unified service. The agencies could do more to recognise and respond to the needs of business users. There are a number of specific areas that require action by the Government and its motoring agencies: the driver Certificate of Professional Competence may not be delivering all the benefits expected of it and the Government should negotiate changes at a European level; the agencies need to have effective assisted digital strategies in place to help those who cannot or are unwilling to use the internet to access services; the agencies need to work with the Government Digital Service and others to address the problem of misleading copycat websites; the DVLA needs to do more to explain how it is required to share personal data with private parking companies and the safeguards that are in place to protect such data; the DVLA needs to adjust it's fees to ensure costs are covered and do more to explain it's calculations; and data sharing needs to be effective, if revenue collection, action on safety and work by enforcement agencies are to be effective, and new services need to be planned with data sharing in mind

Relates to draft statutory instrument (ISBN 9780111500644) issued 27 July 2010

Technologies such as GPS, vital to the financial markets as well as the military, are known to be vulnerable to the effects of space weather or the EMP resultant from a nuclear weapon exploded at altitude. It is also possible to build non-nuclear devices which can disrupt electronic systems, though so far only over a limited area. A severe space weather event is not necessarily seen as a military problem in the first instance, but it would be likely to meet the definition of an "emergency" under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 and call for the help of the Armed Forces. The reactive posture described by the Government appears somewhat complacent. The Committee is very concerned that there appears to be no one Government Department identified to take immediate lead responsibility should there be a severe space weather event. The Government must make clear exactly where lead responsibility in relation to EMP disturbances lies both nationally and within the MoD. Defence alone cannot protect against the threat of EMP. It must be a concern of the National Security Council and civil contingency planners, with proper standards of protection developed with the vital service industries most at risk. The effects of a High Altitude Electro-Magnetic Pulse Event as a result of a nuclear weapon exploded at high altitude, would be so serious that only government action could be expected to mitigate it. Security of satellites is a matter of growing concern as our reliance upon such systems and the sheer number of satellites in orbit increase.