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04 Nov 25. Sweden host Nato conference on civil defence this week.
Sweden, which last year allocated nearly $4bn to civil defence, is among the best placed to impart their knowledge on the subject.
Sweden will host a Nato conference on civil defence for allied military and civilian leadership through the first half of this week (3-5 November 2025) in Stockholm led by Ministers for Defence and Civil Defence, Pål Jonson and Carl-Oskar Bohlin.
It appears the Scandinavian country, which last year allocated Skr37.5bn ($3.9bn) to civil defence, is among the best placed countries to impart their knowledge on the subject, so often overlooked by nations where the Russian threat perception seems less invasive.
The gathering follows the June 2025 summit in the Hague, where allies adopted guidance to strengthen and develop civilian planning efforts. This was reflected in their defence spending, which was raised to 5% of a nation’s gross domestic product, up to 1.5% of which can be allocated to civil concerns like protecting critical national infrastructure – an obvious area of vulnerability in Europe at the moment.
For Nato, ‘civil preparedness’ is tied closely to core defence, and covers three related functions: continuity of government services, continuity of essential services for the population, and ensuring civil support for military operations.
In the end, the objective of the conference is to inform and promote civil-military collaboration. Panel discussions will take place, one will divulge details of Sweden’s latest assessment: ‘Planning assumptions for the development of the Swedish total defence 2025-2030’ while other discussions will focus on exchange of experience.
Disparate perceptions
Sweden has displayed remarkable fluidity between its military and civil defence. Through their conscription service, which was reinstated in 2018, it was said that 8,000 people would be enlisted in 2024, a target Politico said had been reached in July 2024.
But civil society offers more than just manpower. Sweden’s infrastructure supports heavier military platforms. The Air Force, for example, are able to take off and land Gripen fighter jets on reinforced roads.
This contrasts with continental efforts to build a military corridor running to Nato’s eastern flank. European auditors found that tanks from one EU country cannot move through another if they are heavier than road traffic regulations allow. Under normal circumstances, an EU country currently requires 45 days’ notification of cross-border movement authorisations.
The UK has a strikingly dissimilar conception of civil defence. In discussions among military officials and experts at the Royal United Services Institute in December 2024, it was suggested that the country must move away from considering its reservists as an appendage to regulars.
General Jim Hockenhull, commander of Cyber and Specialist Operations Command, held that the military ought to see the strategic value inherent in the reserves in any case, not to lean on them on an ad hoc basis in times of crisis. (Source: naval-technology.com)
04 Nov 25. Spending watchdog issues qualified opinions on Ministry of Defence accounts.
• The MoD has not provided accounting records for ongoing capital projects carried out on its behalf by AWE, a non-departmental public body that helps deliver the UK’s nuclear deterrent.
• A material shortfall in the provisions the MoD recognised in the 2023-24 financial statements across two separate matters also meant that they had to be restated.
• The Comptroller and Auditor General has consequently qualified his opinions on the MoD’s financial statements for 2024-25.
• Read MoD annual report and accounts 2024-25
• Download the press notice (PDF)
A lack of accounting records for some ongoing capital projects and a materially significant shortfall in the provisions for liabilities in the previous year’s accounts have led Gareth Davies, the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG), to issue qualified opinions on the Ministry of Defence (MoD)’s 2024-25 financial statements.1,2
The MoD protects the people, territories, values and interests of the United Kingdom, at home and overseas, through the Armed Forces and in partnership with allies.
It is responsible for a number of associated agencies and public bodies, including the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE), a non-departmental public body that helps deliver the UK’s nuclear deterrent.
As at 31 March 2025, projects carried out by AWE on behalf of the MoD constituted £6.13bn of the value of the department’s assets under construction (or ongoing capital projects) that relate to property and associated equipment as opposed to military equipment.3 Of this total, £1.5bn was identified as relating to legacy projects.
However, the value of AWE’s legacy projects has remained unchanged for several years, and the MoD was unable to provide supporting evidence for audit purposes or any assurance that the continued recognition of this value was appropriate.
The NAO also identified several other balances within the £6.13bn that did not appear to meet the criteria for continued recognition in line with accounting standards.
As a result, the C&AG has limited the scope of his audit opinion on the MoD’s financial statements for 2024-25.4
The NAO has also identified a shortfall of £2.56bn in the provisions for legal and other liabilities that the MoD had recognised in its 2023-24 financial statements.
Two separate matters gave rise to this shortfall. The first related to compensation and costs to settle legal claims associated with personal injury claims, including noise-induced hearing loss.5
The second matter concerned compensation and resettlement costs relating to the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) and the Afghanistan Response Route (ARR).6,7
The MoD had been expensing costs relating to the ARAP and ARR as they were incurred. They had not considered whether a provision was required for their future obligations.
The MoD did not brief the NAO on the existence of a significant data breach and the consequential establishment of the ARR until after a super-injunction was lifted in July 2025. As a result, the NAO was not in a position to consider or challenge the accounting for these arrangements as part of its 2023-24 audit.
Taken together, these two matters constitute a material omission from the MoD’s 2023-24 accounts, necessitating their restatement. The MoD did not have appropriate authorisation from Parliament for this expenditure, which has resulted in a qualified regularity opinion.
1. The MoD annual report and accounts 2024-25 can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ministry-of-defence-annual-report-and-accounts-2024-to-2025
2. The MoD is required to prepare its financial statements in accordance with the Government Financial Reporting Manual (FReM) issued by HM Treasury. Under the FReM, the department is required to apply International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) as adapted or interpreted for the public sector.
3. Assets under construction (AUC) is a temporary classification that is used while capital projects are still in progress and not yet operational. Costs incurred on projects expected to result in a capital asset should be capitalised and included within the Statement of Financial Position only where they are directly attributable to the resultant asset. Costs relating to a project that do not meet the International Accounting Standard (IAS) 16 criteria should be expensed as they are incurred. In recognition that such capital projects can span a number of years, the carrying value of AUC should be reviewed on a regular basis to ensure that the costs capitalised continue to meet the criteria for capital recognition. Where a project is cancelled or the scope changes then any costs no longer contributing to the eventual capital asset should be removed from the AUC balance.
4. The MoD has commenced a programme of work, in conjunction with AWE, to review the £6.13 bn project costs recorded in the project ledger of AWE to determine the appropriate carrying value of these ongoing projects in the department’s accounts. The NAO will audit the outcome of this programme of work as part of its 2025-26 audit, and expects that the outcome of the programme will be reflected in those financial statements.
5. The MoD had previously recognised provisions for these on the basis of claims received. However, following a legal case in July 2024, it accepted a duty of care to those affected, after which it should have recognised a provision for their estimated exposure to both current and future claims.
6. ARAP is a scheme for Afghan citizens who worked for or with the UK government in Afghanistan in exposed or meaningful roles, and may include an offer of relocation to the UK for those deemed eligible by the MoD and who are deemed suitable for relocation by the Home Office. ARAP launched on 1 April 2021 and was closed to new applications on 1 July 2025.
7. In April 2024, the government launched the ARR scheme specifically for those whose personal information was leaked in a February 2022 data breach, who were ineligible for any of the other government resettlement schemes in operation, and who were at significant risk of reprisal by the ruling Taliban regime in Afghanistan. The ARR scheme was discontinued on 4 July 2025.
03 Nov 25. Steel sector changes have “low” impact on UK defence, says Minister of State. The UK is consciously ending traditional practices of producing virgin steel from iron ore for greener steelmaking methods with electric arc furnaces.
Upon an initial assessment, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) claim that the impact of changes in Britain’s steelmaking capacity on military programmes remains low.
Such changes in steelmaking refer to a transition in the UK from traditional blast furnaces for crude steel production to the use of electric arc furnaces (EAFs), which instead melt scrap steel, which produces less carbon and need fewer people to operate.
Of course, many platforms require various forms of steel from the forthcoming Dreadnought class of nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines to stealthy F-35 fighter jets. Yet the UK has made the conscious decision to end its traditional practices of producing virgin steel from iron ore with the closure of blast furnaces at Port Talbot in September 2024.
In doing so, according to one think tank, Britain will be the only economy in the G20 without this sovereign capability.
However, the Minister for Defence Readiness and Industry, Luke Pollard, is less concerned about the risk of reliance on scrap steel. In a parliamentary written response on 30 October, it was the Minister of State who intimated that the risk on defence is “deemed to be low.”
At the same time, the Defence Industrial Strategy, issued in September, underlined the need for action when it comes to cultivating a stronger domestic supply chain for steel.
Nevertheless, the government will continue to investigate the impact on UK defence more closely in another Steel Strategy as they look to ensure that, despite the changes, the country can cultivate a competitive and sustainable steel industry. (Source: army-technology.com)
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