The House Magazine Parliament’s Magazine No.18 - The Ministry of Defence No.18 Guide to The Ministry of Defence In association with 01 Cover.indd 1 14/07/2015 14:40:16 eurocopter.indd 1 14/07/2015 11:42:41 The House Supplement No.18 July 2015 he new Chair of www.politicshome.com the Defence Select [email protected] T Committee, Dr Julian POLITICAL EDITOR PUBLISHING DIRECTOR Lewis, got off to a ying Daniel Bond Rob Ellis start. The Government has PARLIAMENTARY REPORTER DODS CEO Elizabeth Bates Martin Beck agreed to spend 2% of GDP on defence. His COMMISSIONING AND SPECIAL EDITORIAL Committee will be in pole position to check PROJECTS EDITOR [email protected] that this isn’t just the consequence of new Sally Dawson Tel 020 7593 5771 HEAD OF PRODUCTION ADVERTISING accounting methods. John Levers housemagazinesales Working with the Ministry of Defence DESIGN @dods.co.uk Charlotte O’Neill Tel 0207 593 5645 requires an understanding of how the Matt Titley SUBSCRIPTIONS three services came together and how the Max Dubiel Tel 0177 839 5035 ADVERTISING [email protected] department’s structure developed over the Dominic Slonecki DODS SUBS decades. Paul Beaver’s article [p4] provides a Warners Group Publications Plc, ADVERTISING SALES MAN- good starting point. AGER The Maltings, Adam Kinlan West Street Bourne, We hope members old and new will nd Lincolnshire, PE10 9PH this Guide helpful. GISELA STUART MP EDITOR Contents ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION £195 4 HISTORY Paul Beaver tells the turbulent story of TWO-YEAR SUBSCRIPTION £351 how the Ministry of Defence gained air, sea and land The House Magazine is published by Dods supremacy at Whitehall 21 Dartmouth Street, London, SW1H 9BP The House Magazine is printed in the UK by The Magazine Printing 12 INTERVIEW Civil Service World editor Jess Bowie Company using only paper from FSC/PEFC suppliers. www.magprint. co.uk meets the man at the centre of the MoD, permanent The publisher and editor are most grateful to the Clerk of the Parlia- secretary Jon Thompson ments, the Clerk of the House and other senior offi cers of both Houses for the support and advice they readily give. 22 MINISTRY OF DEFENCE ORGANOGRAM ISSN 0309-0426 © Dods Reproduction in any form is prohibited without prior written consent. 25 MINISTERIAL PROFILES Who’s who in the MoD EDITOR Gisela Stuart MP 34 INTERVIEW Minister Julian Brazier on the MoD’s ASSOCIATE EDITORS Graham Brady MP, LIFE PRESIDENT Lord Cormack plans to boost Reserve recruitment Dods is widely respected for producing highly authoritative and 38 INTERVIEW Julian Lewis, the new chair of the independent political publications. Its policy is to accept advertisements representing many sides of a debate from a variety of organisations. Defence Select Committee, talks to Daniel Bond about Dods takes no political stance on the messages contained within the challenges ahead for the UK’s security advertisements but requires that all content is in strict accordance with the law. Dods reserves the right to refuse advertisements for good 46 CONTACTS reason (for example if it is libellous, defamatory, pornographic, socially unacceptable, insensitive or otherwise contrary to editorial policy). CERTIFIED CIRCULATION: 2341 JULY 2015 | THE HOUSE MAGAZINE | 3 03 Contents.indd 3 14/07/2015 14:19:02 HISTORY 4 | THE HOUSE MAGAZINE | JULY 2015 4-10 History Beaver.indd 4 13/07/2015 15:39:14 H MILITARY S T Away from the frontline, the O British military has faced plenty of battles in the corridors of Whitehall. Paul Beaver tells R the turbulent story of how the Ministry of Defence gained air, sea and land supremacy Y JULY 2015 | THE HOUSE MAGAZINE | 5 4-10 History Beaver.indd 5 13/07/2015 15:39:17 raditionally, the British Armed function from the individual services, allowing Forces were governed by two distinct them to concentrate on the operational and frequently warring departments running of the three departments. – the Admiralty, in its splendid For nearly two decades, the Whitehall Whitehall setting, and the War chaos continued with several other ministries TOfce on the other side of the street. Both becoming involved in procurement, supply had ministerial oversight from Parliament and the general fullment of the defence – the Admiralty famously having Winston role. Besides the three services, there Churchill as its ‘rst lord’ twice. evolved a Ministry of Supply (taking in the In 1918, following the failure of the wartime Ministry of Aircraft Production), edgling Royal Naval Air Service and Royal the Ministry of Aviation (formed in 1959) Flying Corps to defend Britain against the and a edging coordinating department, the Zeppelin threat, the world’s rst independent Ministry of Defence, with often overlapping air force was formed on 1 April. This then responsibility. It was confusing, especially created three departments of state – the Air when the Ministry of Technology took over Ministry and the War Ofce had secretaries the military functions of the Ministry of of state and the Admiralty remained the rst Aviation. lord. This did nothing to stop internecine It was a period of turmoil for the armed warfare, but at least moved it into the Cabinet. services, with the confusing and sometimes For the next ve decades, there was a three- way ght for money as the new Air Ministry rapidly established its technology credentials and attracted political support. Successive governments, seeing no existential threat to the British Empire, cut budgets without cutting the scope of the armed forces. When Winston Churchill became prime minister on 10 May 1940, he also took the title of minister of defence. It had no department, but, through a Chiefs of Staff Committee, controlled the operational aspects of the British armed forces around the world. This committee had been formed for coordination purposes in 1923 after David Lloyd George rejected the notion that a combining Ministry of Defence was needed. After the Second World War, in 1946, the Attlee government introduced the Ministry of Defence Act, which gave the minister of defence a Cabinet rank and took away that 6 | THE HOUSE MAGAZINE | JULY 2015 4-10 History Beaver.indd 6 13/07/2015 15:39:22 Then-First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill leaving an Imperial Defence Committee meeting in 1913 Left: Peter Thorneycroft, the fi rst Secretary of State for Defence, leaving Number Ten Page 4: The old War Offi ce building in Whitehall Traditionally, the Forces were governed by two distinct and frequently warring departments – the Admiralty and the War Offi ce JULY 2015 | THE HOUSE MAGAZINE | 7 4-10 History Beaver.indd 7 13/07/2015 15:39:25 In the late 1950s the policies of Minister for Aviation Duncan Sandys, right, often clashed with those of Thorneycroft, writes Beaver contradictory policies of Duncan Sandys and the end of the Cold War and the ridiculous Peter Thorneycroft in 1959 and 1960. This notion that there might suddenly be a led to the Macmillan Government setting ‘peace dividend’. Procurement delays and up a review under the chairmanship of Lord overspends led the Blair government to review Mountbatten, which resolved that the three defence across the whole spectrum and to disparate departments and those sections of create, among other far-reaching ideas, the other departments should be combined into Defence Equipment & Support (organisation, a single Ministry of Defence. It would act as department, thing – it has no suf x to guide general headquarters for the Armed Forces, the uninitiated) with its own headquarters at as well as being a department of state with its Bristol. Here, various offshoots from around own secretary of state. This took effect in 1964 the country, including (eventually!) the vast but it was not until 1971 that the Ministry of naval procurement headquarters at Foxhill, Aviation Supply released its defence functions Bath were moulded together. to the new MoD. The DE&S had its own minister and Bringing the three ‘ ghting’ departments leader, given 4-star ranking with the defence together and rationalising the procurement, chiefs and therefore membership of a dozen supply and disposal organisations had boards set up by consultants trying to bring immediate and positive effects. There was the department into the business arena of the closer coordination and it was just in time 21st century. With the new directive to review for the withdrawal from Empire and the defence and security policy every ve years, heightening of the Cold War. there is now an opportunity to review and The MoD has been gradually re ned since amend the decisions of both 1998 and 2010. 8 | THE HOUSE MAGAZINE | JULY 2015 4-10 History Beaver.indd 8 13/07/2015 15:39:27 Tony Blair with his fi rst Defence Secretary George Robertson The MoD has been gradually refi ned since the end of the Cold War and the ridiculous notion that there might suddenly be a ‘peace dividend’ JULY 2015 | THE HOUSE MAGAZINE | 9 4-10 History Beaver.indd 9 13/07/2015 15:39:27 There are still battles to be fought in the MoD; not with the Queen’s enemies but internally and ‘across the road’ with the Defence Secretary Michael Fallon leaves 10 Downing Street after talks with the PM following the Conservatives election victory in May Treasury After the 2010 review, the Government This structure will now have to grapple accepted the Levene report on structure with the Comprehensive Spending Review, and management in 2011. This signi cantly the in-year savings of £1.3 billion (including changed the way in which the three services the release to the Treasury of last year’s relate to the Centre (as the main building and £500 million underspend) and what has its staff are known).