§ Patrick MercerTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence how often audits are made of maintenance programmes(a) involving Ministry of Defence agencies and (b) with outside contractors. [121250]
§ Mr. IngramInternal audits within the Ministry of Defence are conducted primarily by Defence Internal Audit (DIA) but there are also audit-style reviews by functional and business unit compliance teams as well as specific quality inspections against formal standards. The periodicity of internal audit review is now governed by an assessment of the risks inherent within any particular system or process and agreed by the Defence Audit Committee. As such, there are no longer routine or cyclical audits per se. It is not therefore possible to state how often audits of maintenance programmes may occur. Judgments regarding risk are made by senior managers responsible for the delivery of defence objectives rather than by auditors.
There remains, however, flexibility within the internal audit process to undertake ad hoc reviews as well as consultancy and business development assignments and in recent years DIA has undertaken individual audits examining repair processes, prime contracting and estates maintenance at the request of management.
Ref District A Maldon B Chelmsford C Rochford D Colchester E Tendring F Southend G Castlepoint (c,f,g) Local (a,b,d,e) North Essex H Kent Totals 1990 21 27 25 73 1991 21 23 3 47 1992 58 88 77 223 1993 124 194 102 420 1994 32 555 325 912 1995 56 5 60 12 107 33 2 360 635 1996 91 2 48 44 206 109 1 155 656 1997 23 0 45 5 79 30 6 91 279 1998 49 0 31 20 129 65 5 335 634 1999 58 1 86 23 222 52 10 543 995 2000 48 0 48 38 322 48 1 333 838 2001 51 0 74 22 239 35 3 477 901 2002 50 0 16 14 154 25 0 217 476 2003 to date 9 2 2 12 104 0 0 30 159