During the 1920s and 1930s, British
civil servants and politicians, looking back at the performance of the state during the
First World War, concluded that there was a need for greater co-ordination between the three services that made up the armed forces of the United Kingdom: the
Royal Navy, the
British Army and the
Royal Air Force. The formation of a united ministry of defence was rejected by the coalition government of
David Lloyd George in 1921, but the
Chiefs of Staff Committee was formed in 1923, for the purposes of inter-service co-ordination. As rearmament became a concern during the 1930s,
Stanley Baldwin created the position of
Minister for Co-ordination of Defence.
Ernle Chatfield, 1st Baron Chatfield held the post until the fall of the
Chamberlain government in 1940. His success was limited by his lack of control over the existing Service departments, and his lack of political influence. On forming his government in 1940,
Winston Churchill created the office of Minister of Defence, to exercise ministerial control over the Chiefs of Staff Committee and to co-ordinate defence matters. The post was held by the Prime Minister of the day until
Clement Attlee's government introduced the
Ministry of Defence Act of 1946. After 1946, the three posts of
Secretary of State for War,
First Lord of the Admiralty, and
Secretary of State for Air were formally subordinated to the new
Minister of Defence, who had a seat in the Cabinet. The three service ministers – Admiralty, War, Air – remained in direct operational control of their respective services, but ceased to attend Cabinet. From 1946 to 1964, five Departments of State did the work of the modern Ministry of Defence: the
Admiralty, the
War Office, the
Air Ministry, the
Ministry of Aviation, and
an earlier form of the Ministry of Defence. The
Ministry of Supply existed from 1939 to 1959. Those departments merged in 1964, and the defence functions of the
Ministry of Aviation Supply were merged into the Ministry of Defence in 1971. Thereafter the
MoD Procurement Executive was established as a separate organisation to supervise all military procurement. The unification of all defence activities under a single ministry was motivated by a desire to curb
interservice rivalries and followed the precedent set by the American
National Security Act of 1947.
Controversies Fraud The most notable fraud conviction has been that of
Gordon Foxley, Director of Ammunition Procurement at the Ministry of Defence from 1981 to 1984. Police claimed he received at least £3.5m in total in corrupt payments, such as substantial bribes from overseas arms contractors aiming to influence the allocation of contracts.
Germ and chemical warfare tests A government report covered by
The Guardian newspaper in 2002 indicated that between 1940 and 1979, the Ministry of Defence "turned large parts of the country into a giant laboratory to conduct a series of secret
germ warfare tests on the public" and many of these tests "involved releasing potentially dangerous chemicals and micro-organisms over vast swathes of the population without the public being told." The Ministry of Defence claims that these trials were to simulate germ warfare and that the tests were harmless. However, families who have been in the area of many of the tests are experiencing children with birth defects and physical and mental handicaps and many are asking for a public inquiry. The report estimated these tests affected millions of people, including during one period between 1961 and 1968 where "more than a million people along the south coast of England, from
Torquay to the
New Forest, were exposed to bacteria including
E.coli and
Bacillus globigii, which mimics
anthrax." Two scientists commissioned by the Ministry of Defence stated that these trials posed no risk to the public. This was confirmed by Sue Ellison, a representative of the
Defence Science and Technology Laboratory at
Porton Down who said that the results from these trials "will save lives, should the country or our forces face an attack by chemical and biological weapons."
Civil action In February 2019, former soldier Inoke Momonakaya won £458,000 payout after a legal battle for the racial harassment and bullying he received while serving in the army. In August 2019,
A Commons Defence Select Committee report revealed that several female and
BAME military staff have raised concerns regarding discrimination, bullying and harassment. In September 2019, two former British army soldiers Nkululeko Zulu and Hani Gue won a racial discrimination claim against the Ministry of Defence (MoD). In November 2019, mixed race soldier Mark De Kretser sued MoD for £100k claiming he was subjected to "grindingly repetitive" racist taunts from colleagues.
Territorial Army cuts In October 2009, the MOD was heavily criticised for withdrawing the bi-annual non-operational training £20m budget for the
Territorial Army (TA), ending all non-operational training for six months until April 2010. The government eventually backed down and restored the funding. The TA provides a small percentage of the UK's operational troops. Its members train on weekly evenings and monthly weekends, as well as two-week exercises generally annually and occasionally bi-annually for troops doing other courses. The cuts would have meant a significant loss of personnel and would have had adverse effects on recruitment.
Overspending In 2013, it was found that the Ministry of Defence had overspent on its equipment budget by £6.5bn on orders that could take up to 39 years to fulfil. The Ministry of Defence has been criticised in the past for poor management and financial control. Specific examples of overspending include: • Eight
Boeing Chinook HC3 were ordered in 1995 as dedicated
special forces helicopters. The procurement was described by
Edward Leigh, then Chairman of the
Public Accounts Committee, as "one of the most incompetent procurements of all time" and the
National Audit Office (NAO) issued a scathing report on the affair, stating that the whole programme was likely to cost £500 million. • In 2010, the
Nimrod MRA4 maritime patrol aircraft procurement was cancelled after £3.4 billion had been spent on the programme. In addition there were termination costs which were not disclosed. In January 2011 it was reported by the
Financial Times that when the decision was taken to scrap the aircraft, "[it] was still riddled with flaws". • Failure to manage stocks of supplies and spare parts, resulting in excess
inventory being held. The NAO raised concerns about inventory management from 1991 onwards, but a
Committee of MPs argued in 2013 that "the root causes of the problem [had] not been addressed". MoD officials accepted that the department had "much to do" but informed MPs that "it has already introduced its own
internal control measures to prevent over-ordering of inventory, some of which are showing early signs of success". The Department told the MPs that it was "on track to reduce spending on inventory by £300 million in 2012-13, and that it [planned] to reduce it by £500 million a year within the next three years". Following the 2025
Strategic Defence Review, which suggested increased spending and large changes to the armed forces particularly toward
autonomous weapons, the Defence Investment Plan, expected in autumn 2025, was delayed amid warnings that there was a £28 billion funding gap over the next four years.
Hacking In May 2024, the ministry's payroll system was reportedly targeted multiple times in a
cyberattack in which personnel and their bank details were compromised. While initial reports attributed the
cyberattack to China, the Minister of Defence
Grant Shapps said it would take some time to conclude who was to blame. ==Ministerial team==