Peers have warned the Government must go “further and faster” to prepare the United Kingdom for the possibility of war within 1,000 days, in a report published on Wednesday 11 November.

The House of Lords Industry and Regulators Committee said British industry would be unable to “move quickly enough” to protect the country unless ministers changed the way the Government buys military equipment and encouraged regulators to strip away “overly prescriptive” rules.

The committee’s report calls for a sweeping overhaul of defence procurement, arguing that investors also need “more certainty” about the timeline and nature of contracts before funds will flow into the sector.

Ministry told to embrace risk

Peers called for a “significant shift in the culture” at the Ministry of Defence, which they said had “too often focused on the comfort blanket of following process rather than delivering capability at speed”.

The report urges the ministry to become “more comfortable” with accepting risk when buying new capabilities, and to judge value for money on a wide range of factors rather than on low cost alone.

“When procuring innovative capabilities, the Government should consider funding a number of companies working on the same problem to ensure greater industrial resilience and capacity,” the report said.

“Much of the bureaucracy and process in defence procurement was intended to reduce the risk of wasting public money. This has slowed down procurement without obviously reducing waste.”

The committee added: “The Ministry of Defence must become more comfortable with greater flexibility and risk in its procurement of new capabilities, accepting that the finished product might not be as initially envisaged, that failure can be instructive, and that speed can be more important than cost management.”

Call for a strategic statement on defence

Peers also called on the Prime Minister to reinforce promises made by Defence Secretary Wes Streeting to give officials cover to take greater risks, through a “strategic statement on defence to ensure industry is able to provide UK defence readiness”.

“If the Government continues its arm’s-length, buyer-seller relationship with industry delivering against detailed and prescriptive technical specifications, industry will not be able to move quickly enough to exploit fast-developing technology or to protect the UK in the event of war,” the report said.

The committee said the Ministry of Defence should work with industry “on a quicker, more informal basis” and consult companies earlier, before requirements become fixed.

Defence spending and the 1,000-day target

The committee welcomed the Government’s adoption of the 2025 strategic defence review’s recommendation of a new partnership with industry, saying its recommendations focused on “where the Government must go further and faster”.

The report follows a warning from the Defence Secretary that Britain must be ready for war in 1,000 days as Russia increases its hybrid warfare against Nato.

Chancellor John Healey has committed the Government to spending 3% of economic output on defence by 2030 in his November budget, and has said next year’s spending review will plot a course to reach the target.

Baroness Hayter, chair of the Industry and Regulators Committee, said: “Last year the Strategic Defence Review called for a new relationship between government and the defence industry to reflect the urgency of rebuilding the UK’s defence strength to meet the challenges and changing nature of warfare demonstrated so clearly by the war in Ukraine.”

“Whilst we welcome recognition of the need for change within the Ministry of Defence, it must accelerate, embrace new technologies and enhance the role of SMEs, whilst ensuring the skilled workforce needed to deliver this change,” she added.

“With ongoing threats from Russia and other malign actors, the Government must show the necessary leadership and move at pace to achieve the Defence Secretary’s target of being ready for action within 1,000 days and use the December 1 Defence Investment Summit to provide certainty to business to drive the new partnership forward.”

Ministry of Defence response

A Ministry of Defence spokesperson said: “This Government is delivering the biggest sustained increase in defence spending since the Cold War, investing almost £300 billion to transform our Armed Forces to warfighting readiness to keep Britain safe. We are driving reforms to deliver capability faster, secure better value for money, and strengthen the UK defence industrial base.”

“This includes increasing spending with SMEs by £2.5 billion and our Office for Small Business Growth is reducing barriers to entry, helping more SMEs win defence contracts and backing British firms.”

Sources: Brit Brief and Grimsby Telegraph.