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54-568: Mineseeker Foundation uses technology developed by the British Ministry of Defence and licensed to the organisation to detect and remove mines. Its effectiveness in Kosovo was featured in the BBC documentary Mineseekers. The Mineseeker Foundation also operates an initiative called The Sole of Africa, which provides assistance to communities affected by land mines. Once land mines are detected and removed,

108-460: 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

162-578: A defence policy with four primary missions for the Armed Forces: The review stated the Armed Forces will also contribute to the government's response to crises by being prepared to: Defence is governed and managed by several committees. The following organisational groups come under the control of the MOD. Top level budgets The MOD comprises seven top-level budgets . The head of each organisation

216-568: A government department and has responsibility for the strategy, performance, reform, organisation and the finances of the MOD. The role works closely with the Chief of the Defence Staff in leading the organisation and supporting Ministers in the conduct of business in the department across the full range of responsibilities. The Strategic Defence and Security Review 2015 included £178 billion investment in new equipment and capabilities. The review set

270-656: A luxury hotel and residential apartments. Prior to 1855, 'War Office' signified the office of the Secretary at War . In the 17th and 18th centuries, a number of independent offices and individuals were responsible for various aspects of Army administration. The most important were the Commander-in-Chief of the Forces , the Secretary at War , and the twin Secretaries of State ; most of whose military responsibilities were passed to

324-587: 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

378-893: A new Secretary of State for War in 1794. Others who performed specialist functions were the controller of army accounts, the Army Medical Board , the Commissariat Department, the Board of General Officers, the Judge Advocate General of the Armed Forces , the Commissary General of Muster , the Paymaster General of the forces , and (particularly with regard to the Militia ) the Home Office . The term War Department

432-555: 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. 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

486-693: A separate Minister of Defence for the first time in 1947. In 1964, the present form of the Ministry of Defence was established, unifying the War Office, Admiralty, and Air Ministry. As early as 1718 letters from the Secretary at War were addressed from "The War Office". His department had several headquarters in London until it settled at Horse Guards in Whitehall during 1722. It remained there until 1858. Then, following

540-572: A system called the Defence Sourcing Portal. A separate internal policy generally operates in respect of low value purchasing below this threshold. DEFCON contract conditions are numbered defence contract conditions are in contracts issued by the MOD (not to be confused with DEFCON as used by the United States Armed Forces , which refers to a level of military "defence readiness condition"). Examples include: A full set of

594-585: Is neoclassical in style and was originally built between 1938 and 1959 to designs by Vincent Harris to house the Air Ministry and the Board of Trade . A major refurbishment of the building was completed under a Private Finance Initiative contract by Skanska in 2004. The northern entrance in Horse Guards Avenue is flanked by two monumental statues, Earth and Water , by Charles Wheeler . Opposite stands

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648-542: Is "in excess of £3.3 billion". The defence estate is divided as training areas & ranges (84.0%), research & development (5.4%), airfields (3.4%), barracks & camps (2.5%), storage & supply depots (1.6%), and other (3.0%). These are largely managed by the Defence Infrastructure Organisation . The headquarters of the MOD are in Whitehall and is known as MOD Main Building . This structure

702-552: Is also the Assistant Chief of Defence Staff (Personnel). Permanent Secretary and other senior officials The Ministers and Chiefs of the Defence Staff are supported by several civilian, scientific and professional military advisors. The Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Defence (generally known as the Permanent Secretary ) is the senior civil servant at the MOD. Their role is to ensure that it operates effectively as

756-704: Is personally accountable for the performance and outputs of their particular organisation. These are: Executive agencies Executive non-departmental public bodies Advisory non-departmental public bodies Ad-hoc advisory group Other bodies Public corporations Enabling organisation In addition, the MOD is responsible for the administration of the Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia in Cyprus. Competitive procurement processes are used whenever possible, and all new direct tender and contract opportunities valued over £10,000 are advertised on

810-639: The Government of the United Kingdom . It is responsible for implementing the defence policy set by the government and serves as the headquarters of the British Armed Forces . The MOD states that its principal objectives are to defend the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and its interests and to strengthen international peace and stability. The MOD also manages day-to-day running of

864-676: The Gurkha Monument, sculpted by Philip Jackson and unveiled in 1997 by Queen Elizabeth II . Within it is the Victoria Cross and George Cross Memorial, and nearby are memorials to the Fleet Air Arm and RAF (to its east, facing the riverside). Henry VIII 's wine cellar at the Palace of Whitehall , built in 1514–1516 for Cardinal Wolsey , is in the basement of Main Building, and is used for entertainment. The entire vaulted brick structure of

918-573: The Imperial General Staff was virtually dismantled. Its role was replaced effectively by the Committee of Imperial Defence , which debated broader military issues. The War Office decreased greatly in importance after the First World War, a fact illustrated by the drastic reductions of its staff numbers during the inter-war period. Its responsibilities and funding were also reduced. In 1936,

972-517: The Royal Navy (RN), and (much later) the Air Ministry , which oversaw the Royal Air Force (RAF). The name 'War Office' is also given to the former home of the department, located at the junction of Horse Guards Avenue and Whitehall in central London. The landmark building was sold on 1 March 2016 by HM Government for more than £ 350 million, on a 250 year lease for conversion into

1026-583: The 1867 confederation of the Dominion of Canada , was to split the military administration of the British Empire much as the War and Colonial Office had: In February 1855, the new Secretary of State for War was additionally commissioned as Secretary at War, thus giving the Secretary of State oversight of the War Office in addition to his own department. The same procedure was followed for each of his successors, until

1080-597: The Army Council was recommended by the War Office (Reconstitution) Committee, and formally appointed by Letters Patent dated 8 February 1904, and by Royal Warrant dated 12 February 1904. The management of the War Office was hampered by persistent disputes between the civilian and military parts of the organisation. The government of H.H. Asquith attempted to resolve this during the First World War by appointing Lord Kitchener as Secretary for War. During his tenure,

1134-633: The Cabinet. The disastrous campaigns of the Crimean War resulted in the consolidation of all administrative duties in 1855 as subordinate to the Secretary of State for War, a Cabinet job. He was not, however, solely responsible for the Army; the Commander-in-Chief had a virtually equal degree of responsibility. This was reduced in theory by the reforms introduced by Edward Cardwell in 1870, which subordinated

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1188-463: The Commander-in-Chief to the Secretary for War. In practice, however, a large influence was retained by the conservative Commander-in-Chief Field Marshal Prince George, 2nd Duke of Cambridge , who held the post between 1856 and 1895. His resistance to reform caused military efficiency to lag well behind that of Britain's rivals, a problem that became obvious during the Second Boer War . The situation

1242-510: The DEFCONs can be accessed via the MoD's Defence Gateway (registration required). The government noted in 2013 that the MoD's third-party expenditure was characterised by "complex, high-value contracts". Defence purchasing contributes to government ambitions to make supply chains more accessible to small and medium-sized enterprises , but the government commented that it had yet to secure good insight into

1296-640: The Defence Staff (CDS) is the professional head of the British Armed Forces and the most senior uniformed military adviser to the Secretary of State for Defence and the Prime Minister . The CDS is supported by the Vice Chief of the Defence Staff (VCDS) who deputises and is responsible for the day-to-day running of the armed services aspect of the MOD through the Central Staff, working closely alongside

1350-563: The House of Commons, routinely presented the House with the Army Estimates, and occasionally spoke on other military matters as required. In symbolic terms, he was seen as signifying parliamentary control over the Army. Issues of strategic policy during wartime were managed by the Northern and Southern Departments (the predecessors of today's Foreign Office and Home Office ). From 1704 to 1855,

1404-560: The Ministry of Defence. Those departments merged in 1964, and the defence functions of the Ministry of Aviation Supply were merged into the Ministry of Defence in 1971. 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 . The Ministers in the Ministry of Defence are as follows, with cabinet ministers in bold: The Chief of

1458-660: The Permanent Secretary. They are joined by the professional heads of the three British armed services ( Royal Navy , British Army and Royal Air Force ) and the Commander of Strategic Command . All personnel sit at OF-9 rank in the NATO rank system . Together the Chiefs of Staff form the Chiefs of Staff Committee with responsibility for providing advice on operational military matters and

1512-471: The War Office was directed initially by the Secretary at War , whose role had originated during the reign of King Charles II as the secretary to the Commander-in-Chief of the Army . In the latter part of the 17th century, the office of Commander-in-Chief was vacant for several periods, which left the Secretary at War answering directly to the Sovereign; and thereafter, even when the office of Commander-in-Chief

1566-401: The allocation of contracts. 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

1620-571: The armed forces, contingency planning and defence procurement . The expenditure, administration and policy of the MOD are scrutinised by the Defence Select Committee , except for Defence Intelligence which instead falls under the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament . During the 1920s and 1930s, British civil servants and politicians, looking back at the performance of the state during World War I , concluded that there

1674-430: The building required five years to complete, at a cost of more than 1.2 million pounds. The building is somewhat oddly shaped, forming a trapezoid in order to maximise the use of the irregularly shaped plot of land on which it was built: its four distinctive domes were designed as a decorative means of disguising the shape. It has around 1,100 rooms on seven floors. After 1964 the building continued to be used, under

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1728-564: The cellar was encased in steel and concrete and relocated nine feet to the west and nearly 19 feet (5.8 m) deeper in 1949, when construction was resumed at the site after World War II . This was carried out without any significant damage to the structure. 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

1782-762: The dissolution of the Board of Ordnance, the War Office moved into the Board's former offices in Cumberland House , Pall Mall . Over the ensuing years it expanded into adjacent properties on Pall Mall before it was relocated to purpose-built accommodation, in what is now known as the Old War Office Building, in 1906. Between 1906 and its abolition in 1964 the War Office was based in a large neo-Baroque building designed by William Young , completed during 1906, and located on Horse Guards Avenue at its junction with Whitehall in Central London. The construction of

1836-639: The establishment of the Colonial Office in 1854). From 1824, the British Empire (excepting India , which was administered separately by the East India Company and then the India Office ) was divided by the War and Colonial Office into the following administrative departments: NORTH AMERICA WEST INDIES MEDITERRANEAN AND AFRICA EASTERN COLONIES The War Office, after 1854 and until

1890-603: 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. 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

1944-419: The government of Stanley Baldwin appointed a Minister for Co-ordination of Defence, who was not part of the War Office. When Winston Churchill became Prime Minister in 1940, he bypassed the War Office altogether, and appointed himself Minister of Defence (though there was, curiously, no ministry of defence until 1947). Clement Attlee continued this arrangement when he came to power in 1945, but appointed

1998-491: The job of Secretary remained occupied by a minister of the second rank (although he was occasionally part of the Cabinet after 1794). Many of his responsibilities were transferred to the Secretary of State for War after the creation of that more senior post in 1794 (though the latter was also responsible for Britain's colonies from 1801, and renamed Secretary of State for War and the Colonies , an arrangement which only ceased with

2052-469: The land is returned to agricultural uses. The foundation is supported by a number of notable patrons and ambassadors including Nelson Mandela , Oscar Pistorius and Brad Pitt . This article about an organisation in South Africa is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . British Ministry of Defence The Ministry of Defence ( MOD or MoD ) is a ministerial department of

2106-489: The name The Old War Office, by the Ministry of Defence . On 1 June 2007 the building, other than the steps that give access to it, was designated as a protected site for the purposes of Section 128 of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 . The effect was to make it a specific criminal offence for a person to trespass on the building. In August 2013 it was announced that the building would be sold on

2160-518: 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

2214-538: 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

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2268-563: The office of Secretary at War was abolished altogether in 1863. In 1855, the Board of Ordnance was abolished as a result of its perceived poor performance during the Crimean War . This powerful independent body, dating from the 15th century, had been directed by the Master-General of the Ordnance , usually a very senior military officer who (unlike the Secretary at War) was often a member of

2322-443: The open market, with a goal of realising offers above 100 million pounds. On 13 December 2014 the Ministry of Defence confirmed that the building would be sold to the Hinduja Group for an undisclosed amount. The building was sold on 1 March 2016 for more than 350 million pounds, on a 250-year lease, to the Hinduja Group and OHL Developments for conversion to a luxury hotel and residential apartments. Hinduja and Raffles plan to open

2376-403: The past for poor management and financial control. Specific examples of overspending include: 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

2430-475: 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

2484-416: The preparation and conduct of military operations. The current Chiefs of Staff are as follows. The Chief of Defence Staff is supported by several Deputy Chiefs of the Defence Staff and senior officers at OF-8 rank. Additionally, there are a number of Assistant Chiefs of Defence Staff , including the Defence Services Secretary in the Royal Household of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom , who

2538-404: The remit of his office to cover general day-to-day administration of the Army. After Blathwayt's retirement in 1704, Secretary at War became a political office. In political terms, it was a fairly minor government job (despite retaining a continued right of access to the monarch) which dealt with the minutiae of administration, rather than grand strategy. The Secretary, who was usually a member of

2592-576: The results from these trials "will save lives, should the country or our forces face an attack by chemical and biological weapons." 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

2646-417: The supply chain role of SMEs. The Ministry of Defence is one of the United Kingdom's largest landowners, owning 227,300 hectares of land and foreshore (either freehold or leasehold) at April 2014, which was valued at "about £20 billion". The MOD also has "rights of access" to a further 222,000 hectares. In total, this is about 1.8% of the UK land mass. The total annual cost to support the defence estate

2700-426: 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

2754-460: Was initially used for the separate office of the Secretary of State for War; in 1855, the offices of Secretary at War and Secretary of State for War were amalgamated, and thereafter the terms War Office and War Department were used somewhat interchangeably. The War Office developed from the Council of War , an ad hoc grouping of the King and his senior military commanders which managed the Kingdom of England 's wars and campaigns. The management of

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2808-449: Was only remedied in 1904, when the job of Commander-in-Chief was abolished, and replaced with that of the Chief of the General Staff , which was replaced by the job of Chief of the Imperial General Staff in 1908. An Army Council was created with a format similar to that of the Board of Admiralty , directed by the Secretary of State for War, and an Imperial General Staff was established to coordinate Army administration. The creation of

2862-408: Was restored on a more permanent basis, the Secretary at War retained his independence. The department of the Secretary at War was referred to as the 'Warr Office' (sic) from as early as 1694; its foundation has traditionally been ascribed to William Blathwayt , who had accompanied King William III during the Nine Years' War and who, from his appointment as Secretary in 1684, had greatly expanded

2916-427: Was to blame. War Office The War Office has referred to several British government organisations in history, all relating to the army. It was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). It was at that time, equivalent to the Admiralty , responsible for

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