The House of Commons defence committee is urging the Ministry of Defence (MOD) to do more to improve its financial information, after the department's accounts were qualified for the seventh successive year by the National Audit Office (NAO).

The NAO was critical of the MOD accounts for 2012-13 on a number of grounds, saying that in particular 'much needs to be done to remedy the poor state of inventory control'.

James Arbuthnot, chairman of the defence committee said: 'The provision of reliable management information is critical to the effective running of an organisation. In particular, the MoD should concentrate on improving its financial management information.'

The committee's report expressed its concern about the amount and quality of information provided in the MOD's annual report, saying 'much work is still needed before it meets the standards the committee would expect to see'.

MPs said there were a number of key areas that should be included in future MOD annual reports, including the readiness levels of the Armed Forces, manning and outflow statistics in all Services, data on the procurement and maintenance of defence equipment and details of the progress of transformation projects against targets.