1.8 While the 2010 Spending Review set the financial direction for the Department, the National Security Strategy and the Strategic Defence and Security Review set the strategic direction. Implementing this high-level strategic vision is being informed by a number of formal reviews; in particular the Defence Reform review led by Lord Levene. This review reported eight months after the Spending Review and has far-reaching consequences for the Department's structure and ways of working.4 The Department is, therefore, implementing headcount reductions alongside a period of significant strategic change across its business. The Department has recognised the risk inherent in this approach, however, the need to make rapid savings has driven it to start planning for headcount reductions before determining the detail of how it will operate in future.
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4 Lord Levene et al, Defence Reform, 2011.