Government plans to boost military reserve and cadet forces lack detail and funding, PAC finds
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- Network of reserve training sites and cadet huts in managed
decline, according to MoD Government lacks a realistic and
appropriately funded plan to achieve its ambition of expanding the
reserve forces and the cadets. The Public Accounts Committee (PAC),
in its report on the Ministry of Defence's (MoD) oversight of the
Reserve Forces' and Cadets' Associations (RFCAs), warns that the
MoD's targets for expansion of reserves and cadets face significant
barriers and suffer from...Request free
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- Network of reserve training sites and cadet huts in managed decline, according to MoD Government lacks a realistic and appropriately funded plan to achieve its ambition of expanding the reserve forces and the cadets. The Public Accounts Committee (PAC), in its report on the Ministry of Defence's (MoD) oversight of the Reserve Forces' and Cadets' Associations (RFCAs), warns that the MoD's targets for expansion of reserves and cadets face significant barriers and suffer from a lack of clarity. The reserves are a key part of the UK's defence capability, making up a little under a fifth of its total armed forces strength at the start of 2025. Ambitious plans were laid out for expanding the role of the reserves in the Strategic Defence Review (SDR), including increasing active reserve forces by at least 20% “when funding allows”. According to the SDR this would “most likely” be by the 2030s – however, the MoD recognised to the PAC's inquiry that investment would need to come in support of the reserves during this Parliament, so within the next 4 years. The MoD is also seeking as a priority to improve reserves' management via a digital solution by early 2027 – a tight timescale to meet. The report also covers the cadet forces, which the SDR also wants to increase by 30% by 2030, from 140,000 to 250,000. Cadet forces can enhance social mobility and give confidence and structure to the most disadvantaged young people, and the PAC's inquiry heard that there was no lack of interest from young people wanting to join the cadets. However, the MoD is still working out how to address the shortage of adult volunteers who run the cadets, and the PAC believes it will require considerable effort to persuade young people to volunteer as cadets in such significantly increased numbers. The PAC's report is calling for the full enhancement and expansion plans for the reserves and cadets to be set out by 2026. The enhanced roles of the reserves and cadets will also need to be supported by a modernised and fit-for-purpose volunteer estate of training sites and cadet huts. However, the PAC's report finds that the estate has been in a state of managed decline, with too many sites (around 2,500), some of which are not in the right places. The MoD has begun a programme to dispose of some sites and consolidate others into super reserve centres, but has not yet secured future funding for this work while facing teething problems with an estate maintenance contract. The PAC's report calls for MoD to give due consideration to the volunteer estate in forthcoming investment decisions. Overall, the PAC finds inadequate arrangements for monitoring the financial performance of the RFCAs, which received £146m of public money in 2023-24. October 2024 saw a batch of three annual accounts published together, meaning that some information about the RFCAs' financial performance was not publicly available until more than four years after it had occurred. An overall financial framework that complies with Treasury requirements is still not in place, and the PAC is calling for one to be implemented as a matter of urgency. Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP, Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, said: “The publication of the Strategic Defence Review (SDR) was greeted with great celebration from the top of government. It is of course welcome to see the high-level commitments to spending on our defence contained within it. What we still do not have, following an unacceptably long delay in proper scrutiny of defence spending through the lack of publication of an Equipment Plan, are granular details on specifically how these ambitions will be funded and delivered. This includes the lack of clarity our Committee has found around highly ambitious plans to expand our reserve and cadet forces. “Our inquiry has found that the MoD will need to find funding in this Parliament to begin its massive 20% expansion of the reserves, rather than the SDR's anticipation of some point in the 2030s. Similarly, the planned boost of the cadet forces by a third by 2030 will stumble if the lack of adult volunteers is not addressed. This is before one begins to grapple with the considerable challenge of persuading young people to join up in the numbers required. Our Committee welcomes the government's aims. The reserves are the very grassroots of our armed forces and the cadets offer young people valuable life skills and opportunities. The managed decline of the infrastructure that supports them shows they are in sore need of attention. But as we have frequently found in scrutiny of this government, what is missing is a plan for how these aims will be achieved.” Notes to editors
The PAC's June 2025 report on the future of the Equipment Plan found that the public still lacked a reliable assessment of whether government's defence spending plans are affordable.
PAC report conclusions and recommendations It is unclear how the Department will deliver the ambitious plans for expanding the role of the reserves set out in the Strategic Defence Review (SDR). The SDR sets out the government's intentions to increase the numbers and resilience of the reserves. This includes increasing the UK's Active Reserve forces by at least 20%, when funding allows, which the SDR anticipates will most likely be in the 2030s. In the meantime, the SDR says that the armed forces must improve recruitment and retention of the reserves. The Department says that the needs of the reserves will be considered in the defence investment plan it will be developing over the summer, which will confirm the sequencing of the priorities identified in the SDR. However, the Department recognises it needs to make some investments in support of the reserves during this Parliament. A key priority for the Department is reinvigorating its relationship with the Strategic Reserve of ex-regular personnel, which requires it to establish a digital solution by early 2027 to improve reserves management. Effective engagement with employers will be important for the Department achieving its ambitions: this can build on the RFCAs' Defence Relationship Management function and secure employers' support for their staff to be involved in the reserves. Recommendation 1. The Department must set out by 31 March 2026 its plan for how it will:
The government's plans to increase the number of cadets by 30% by 2030 face several significant barriers. There are potentially great benefits for young people in expanding the cadet forces, which will mean increasing both the size and number of cadet units. Cadet forces can enhance social mobility and give confidence and structure to the most disadvantaged young people. The Minister for Veterans and People has told Parliament that the annual cost of the cadet forces is covered if just 1% of cadets change their life outcomes each year, so that they take part in education, training, or gain employment. The Department says that the cadet expansion plan has increased the number of cadet units in state schools, which accounts for 57% of school-based units, whereas independent schools used to account for about 70%. We were informed that there is no lack of interest from young people in joining the cadets, but there is a shortage of adult volunteers to run cadet units. The Department is still working out how to address this shortage. In doing so, it must ensure it maintains robust cadet safeguarding arrangements. Meanwhile, the devolved administrations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have responsibility for education and the Department's approach to expanding the cadets within the devolved nations needs to take account of this. Recommendation 2.
iii) maintain robust safeguarding arrangements for the enlarged cadet forces.
The Department has not secured the legislative slot it needs for its preferred route forward, of streamlining the 13 RFCAs and the Council into a non-departmental public body (NDPB). Creating an NDPB requires legislation. However, the Department's earlier plan to rationalise the RFCAs into an NDPB, which would simplify back-office functions and clarify accountabilities, was thwarted by a lack of Parliamentary time before the 2024 general election. The Department still aims to establish an NDPB to bring better coherence and formality to the current arrangements, with a new board and chief executive to run the business. It is working to develop a bespoke NDPB which maximises local membership and engagement as well as making the organisation as efficient and effective as possible. Reserves and cadets join to serve locally, and central coordination needs to be combined with local implementation, by people who understand their local environments. The Department says that the next opportunity to set up an NDPB will be through an Armed Forces Bill, which it is due to produce by the end of 2026. Recommendation 3. The Department should write to the Committee by 31 March 2026 with an update on its progress in establishing an NDPB. This should include details of how it will ensure the correct balance between the operational effectiveness of the NDPB with the benefits of having local volunteer input. The Department will need to continue to manage around the limitations of its current oversight arrangements for the RFCAs until it has established an NDPB. The Department has improved its oversight of the RFCAs since 2019, implementing around 70% of the Sullivan Review's recommendations either fully or partially. It now has a single senior responsible owner, the Assistant Chief of the Defence Staff (Reserves and Cadets), to coordinate the Department's various stakeholders who deal with the RFCAs. A sponsor board meets twice a year to review RFCAs' performance. The Department has improved the service level agreements in which the armed forces specify their requirements for the RFCAs. However, the system still relies too much on the Council and RFCA officials' shared aims and values, and it lacks clear and well-understood escalation processes when issues cannot be locally resolved. A 'consequence culture' where officials are truly accountable for poor performance is not yet embedded. The Department says it is now at an 'inflection point' where the governance and oversight of the RFCAs needs to be fit for purpose to support the ambitions in the SDR. Recommendation 4. Alongside its Treasury Minute response, the Department should write to the Committee setting out how it will enhance accountability for the performance of the RFCAs under the current arrangements, pending the establishment of an NDPB. The Department does not have a modernised and fit-for-purpose volunteer estate to support the enhanced roles of the reserves and cadets. The reserve training sites are the basis for mobilising the reserves, while having accommodation for thousands of cadet units to operate across the UK provides an important, nationwide presence. However, the volunteer estate has been in a state of managed decline, and it has too many sites – around 2,500 – some of which are not in the right places. The Department has started an estate optimisation programme, initially focusing on disposals. It now wants to consolidate some sites, establishing super reserve centres with additional facilities such as car parking, accommodation and feeding facilities. This will require investment, but the Department has not yet secured funding for future phases of this work. Meanwhile, the Department has brought the maintenance of the volunteer estate into its wider defence estate maintenance contract. There have been teething problems with this contract, with one supplier not delivering what it should. The Department also misunderstood RFCAs' liability to pay VAT on work done through this contract, meaning that RFCAs have had less money available for maintenance than expected. The Department is discussing the VAT issue with HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC). Resolving it may require either a site-by-site review of the ownership of RFCA sites or addressing it as part of forming the RFCAs into an NDPB. Recommendation 5. To establish and maintain an optimised volunteer estate the Department should:
The Department's arrangements for monitoring and reporting on the RFCAs' financial performance are inadequate. The RFCAs' accounts have been produced very late in recent years. The Department published the RFCAs accounts for 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2022-23 together, in October 2024, which means that some information about the Council and the RFCAs' financial performance was not publicly available until more than four years after it had occurred. The Department had not published the 2023-24 accounts at the time of our inquiry, more than a year after the end of that financial year. Despite the RFCAs receiving £146 million of public money in 2023-24, the Department does not have an overall financial framework for them which complies with HM Treasury requirements. The Department began developing a new financial framework in 2022, but this is still not in place: it is currently with HM Treasury for comment, and the Department says that it expects to finalise it in the next few months. In addition, some of the RFCAs' financial reporting is not compliant with HM Treasury and International Financial Reporting Standards. For example, the Council, which consolidates the accounts of the 13 RFCAs, was unaware that it should include a cash flow statement and the Department did not pick them up on this omission. Recommendation 6. As a matter of urgency, the Department should:
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