The Ministry of Defence currently has a number of large and complex construction projects for facilities at nuclear-regulated sites. In January 2020 the NAO published a report examining the building or replacing of three nuclear-regulated sites – with a current value of £2.5bn. The report finds that the three projects experienced problems in their earlier and riskier stages, with a cumulative £1.35bn cost increase and delays of between 1.7 and 6.3 years. The report also expresses disappointment that the challenges affecting these projects are not unique, and have been experienced by the Ministry of Defence for decades.
The Committee will ask officials from the Ministry of Defence what lessons it has learnt as it completes these projects, and how the Government will be revising the projects’ commercial, regulatory and governance arrangements to ensure value for money for the taxpayer.