Defence and Public Accounts Committee Chairs: delay to DIP publication “risks sending damaging signals to adversaries”

Chair of the Defence Committee, Tan Dhesi MP, and Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP, have written a joint letter to the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Defence (MOD), Jeremy Pocklington, seeking clarity on when the Defence Investment Plan (DIP) will be published. 

The publication of the plan was due in Autumn 2025, as set out in the Strategic Defence Review, but has been repeatedly pushed back. Today's letter highlights that further delay to the DIP publication “risks sending damaging signals to adversaries”. 

The letter states that “continued delays cannot be blamed on external events, which are unceasing. The difficult choices need to be made now”.  

The Committees warn that the MOD's failure to publish Equipment Plans in 2023 and 2024, and now the absence of the DIP, has resulted in an unacceptable gap in Parliament and the public's ability to scrutinise Defence spending.