Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom)

The Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS) is the professional head of the British Armed Forces and the most senior uniformed military adviser to the Secretary of State for Defence and the Prime Minister.

The CDS is supported by the Vice Chief of the Defence Staff (VCDS) who deputises and is responsible for the day-to-day running of the armed services aspect of the MOD through the Central Staff, working closely alongside the Permanent Secretary. They are joined by the professional heads of the three British armed services (Royal Navy, British Army and Royal Air Force) and the Commander of Strategic Command. All personnel sit at OF-9 rank in the NATO rank system.[9]

Together the Chiefs of Staff form the Chiefs of Staff Committee with responsibility for providing advice on operational military matters and the preparation and conduct of military operations.

The current Chiefs of Staff are as follows.[10]

• Chief of the Defence Staff – General Sir Nick Carter
• Vice-Chief of the Defence Staff – Admiral Sir Timothy Fraser
• First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff – Admiral Tony Radakin (Head of the Royal Navy)
• Chief of the General Staff – General Sir Mark Carleton-Smith (Head of the British Army)
• Chief of the Air Staff – Air Chief Marshal Sir Mike Wigston (Head of the Royal Air Force)
• Commander of Strategic Command – General Sir Patrick Sanders

The Chief of Staff is supported by several Deputy Chief of the Defence Staffs and senior officers at OF-8 rank.[9]

• Chief of Defence People – Lieutenant General James Swift
• Deputy Chief of Defence Staff (Military Strategy and Operations) – Lieutenant-General Douglas Chalmers
• Deputy Chief of Defence Staff (Military Capability) – Air Marshal Richard Knighton
• Chief of Joint Operations - Vice-Admiral Sir Ben Key, based at Northwood Headquarters
• Defence Senior Adviser Middle East - Lieutenant-General Sir John Lorimer

Additionally, there are a number of Assistant Chiefs of Defence Staff, including the Defence Services Secretary in the Royal Household of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom, who is also the Assistant Chief of Defence Staff (Personnel).[11]

Defence is governed and managed by several committees.

• The Defence Council provides the formal legal basis for the conduct of defence in the UK through a range of powers vested in it by statute and Letters Patent. It too is chaired by the Secretary of State, and its members are ministers, the senior officers and senior civilian officials.[16][17]
• The Defence Board is the main MOD corporate board chaired by the Secretary of State oversees the strategic direction and oversight of defence, supported by an Investment Approvals Committee, Audit Committee and People Committee. The board's membership comprises the Secretary of State, the Armed Forces Minister, the Permanent Secretary, the Chief and Vice Chief of the Defence Staff, the Chief of Defence Materiel, Director General Finance and three non-executive board members.[16][18]
• Head Office and Corporate Services (HOCS), which is made up of the Head Office and a range of corporate support functions. It has two joint heads the Chief of the Defence Staff and the Permamant Secretary who are the combined TLB holders for this unit they are responsible for directing the other TLB holders.[19][20]

The following organisational groups come under the control of the MOD.[21][22]

Top level budgets

The MOD comprises five top-level budgets. The head of each organisation is personally accountable for the performance and outputs of their particular organisation.

• Navy Command - Royal Navy
• Army Command - British Army
• Air Command - Royal Air Force
• Strategic Command
• Defence Nuclear Organisation

Bespoke trading entity

• Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S)

Executive agencies

• Defence Electronics and Components Agency (DECA)
• Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl)
• UK Hydrographic Office (UKHO) – also has trading fund status.
• Submarine Delivery Agency (SDA) – created in April 2017 and to be fully functional by April 2018.[23]

Executive non-departmental public bodies

• National Museum of the Royal Navy
• National Army Museum
• Royal Air Force Museum
• Single Source Regulations Office (SSRO)

Advisory non-departmental public bodies

• Advisory Committee on Conscientious Objectors
• Advisory Group on Military Medicine
• Armed Forces Pay Review Body
• Defence Nuclear Safety Committee
• Independent Medical Expert Group
• National Employer Advisory Board
• Nuclear Research Advisory Council
• Scientific Advisory Committee on the Medical Implications of Less-Lethal Weapons
• Veterans Advisory and Pensions Committees

Ad-hoc advisory group

• Central Advisory Committee on Compensation

Other bodies

• Commonwealth War Graves Commission
• Defence Academy of the United Kingdom
• Defence Sixth Form College
• Defence and Security Media Advisory Committee
• Fleet Air Arm Museum
• Independent Monitoring Board for the Military Corrective Training Centre (Colhester)
• Reserve Forces' and Cadets' Associations
• Royal Hospital Chelsea
• Royal Marines Museum
• Royal Navy Submarine Museum
• Service Complaints Ombudsman
• Service Prosecuting Authority
• United Kingdom Reserve Forces Association

Public corporations

• The Oil and Pipelines Agency (OPA)

Support organisation

• Defence Business Services (DBS)

In addition, the MOD is responsible for the administration of the Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia in Cyprus.[24]

The headquarters of the MOD are in Whitehall and is known as MOD Main Building. This structure is neoclassical in style and was originally built between 1938 and 1959 to designs by Vincent Harris to house the Air Ministry and the Board of Trade. A major refurbishment of the building was completed under a Private Finance Initiative contract by Skanska in 2004.[26] The northern entrance in Horse Guards Avenue is flanked by two monumental statues, Earth and Water, by Charles Wheeler. Opposite stands the Gurkha Monument, sculpted by Philip Jackson and unveiled in 1997 by Queen Elizabeth II. Within it is the Victoria Cross and George Cross Memorial, and nearby are memorials to the Fleet Air Arm and RAF (to its east, facing the riverside).

Henry VIII's wine cellar at the Palace of Whitehall, built in 1514–1516 for Cardinal Wolsey, is in the basement of Main Building, and is used for entertainment. The entire vaulted brick structure of the cellar was encased in steel and concrete and relocated nine feet to the west and nearly 19 feet (5.8 m) deeper in 1949, when construction was resumed at the site after the Second World War. This was carried out without any significant damage to the structure.[27]

The most notable fraud conviction has been that of Gordon Foxley, Director of Ammunition Procurement at the Ministry of Defence from 1981 to 1984. Police claimed he received at least £3.5m in total in corrupt payments, such as substantial bribes from overseas arms contractors aiming to influence the allocation of contracts.[28]

A government report covered by The Guardian newspaper in 2002 indicated that between 1940 and 1979, the Ministry of Defence "turned large parts of the country into a giant laboratory to conduct a series of secret germ warfare tests on the public" and many of these tests "involved releasing potentially dangerous chemicals and micro-organisms over vast swathes of the population without the public being told."[29] The Ministry of Defence claims that these trials were to simulate germ warfare and that the tests were harmless. However, families who have been in the area of many of the tests are experiencing children with birth defects and physical and mental handicaps and many are asking for a public inquiry. The report estimated these tests affected millions of people, including during one period between 1961 and 1968 where "more than a million people along the south coast of England, from Torquay to the New Forest, were exposed to bacteria including e.coli and bacillus globigii, which mimics anthrax." Two scientists commissioned by the Ministry of Defence stated that these trials posed no risk to the public. This was confirmed by Sue Ellison, a representative of the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory at Porton Down who said that the results from these trials "will save lives, should the country or our forces face an attack by chemical and biological weapons."

In October 2009 the MOD was heavily criticised for withdrawing the bi-annual non-operational training £20m budget for the Territorial Army (TA), ending all non-operational training for 6 months until April 2010. The government eventually backed down and restored the funding. The TA provides a small percentage of the UK's operational troops. Its members train on weekly evenings and monthly weekends, as well as two-week exercises generally annually and occasionally bi-annually for troops doing other courses. The cuts would have meant a significant loss of personnel and would have had adverse effects on recruitment.[30]

In 2013 it was found that the Ministry of Defence had overspent on its equipment budget by £6.5bn on orders that could take up to 39 years to fulfil. The Ministry of Defence has been criticised in the past for poor management and financial control.[31] Specific examples of overspending include:

• Eight Boeing Chinook HC3 were ordered in 1995 as dedicated special forces helicopters.[32] The aircraft were to cost £259 million and the forecast in-service date was November 1998.[32] However, although delivered in 2001, the Mk3 could not receive airworthiness certificates as it was not possible to certify the avionics software, and would not enter service until 2017.[33][34] The procurement was described by Edward Leigh, then Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, as "one of the most incompetent procurements of all time" and the National Audit Office issued a scathing report on the affair, stating that the whole programme was likely to cost £500 million.[35][32]
• In 2010 the Nimrod MRA4 maritime patrol aircraft procurement was cancelled after £3.4 billion had been spent on the programme. In addition there were termination costs which were not disclosed.[36] In January 2011 it was reported by the Financial Times that when the decision was taken to scrap the aircraft, "[it] was still riddled with flaws".[37]