Armed Forces: Pay
(asked on 2nd March 2026) - View Source
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many individuals have received an operational tour bonus in each of the ten previous financial years.
The following table shows the distinct number of Service personnel who received operational tour bonuses as paid under ‘operational allowance’ and ‘retro operational allowance’ in the last ten financial years.
Financial Year | Operational Allowance | Retro Operational Allowance | Grand Total |
2015-16 | 1,867 | 1,774 | 3,177 |
2016-17 | 2,381 | 2,268 | 4,071 |
2017-18 | 3,390 | 3,808 | 5,976 |
2018-19 | 3,820 | 4,209 | 6,690 |
2019-20 | 4,584 | 3,935 | 7,022 |
2020-21 | 2,490 | 3,920 | 5,333 |
2021-22 | 3,082 | 3,179 | 5,283 |
2022-23 | 1,873 | 1,467 | 3,014 |
2023-24 | 1,132 | 1,256 | 2,107 |
2024-25 | 1,401 | 1,552 | 2,524 |
2025 – 3 March 2026 | 2,944 | 1,018 | 3,593 |
Total | 23,384 | 22,116 | 35,294 |
Totals represent unique individuals and may therefore differ from the sum of individual allowance counts.