Army: Costs

(asked on 19th April 2022) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 17 November to Question 73729, what recent estimate he has made of the average cost to the British Army of employing an infantry soldier; and what estimate he has made of that cost in 2021-22.


Answered by
James Heappey Portrait
James Heappey
This question was answered on 25th April 2022

The average cost (Basic Pay/ Employer National Insurance/ Pension) of an Infantry soldier in the Other Ranks of the British Army is given below:

Financial Year Ending

31 March 2022

Infantry (Other Ranks)

£47,616.50

Source: Defence Statistics (Cost Modelling)

Table Notes:

1. The Average Cost in the table above represents Basic Pay/ Employer National Insurance/ Pension only and does not include other costs such as those associated with recruitment, training, clothing, stock consumption, infrastructure, or medical/dental care.

2. The Basic Pay includes X-Factor payments.

3. The Employer National Insurance would be 0% for some of the populations (I.e., general population under the age of 21 and apprentices under the age of 25).

4. The Average Cost was determined using the Joint Personnel Administration (JPA) payroll data. Payment records for 12 months were averaged (mean) for each Infantry soldier to create a monthly estimate of their cost. That monthly estimate was then averaged (mean) across the whole of the Infantry and the result was multiplied by 12 to create the Average (annual) Cost.

5. The Financial Year for statistical purposes runs from 1 April to 31 March.

The information for financial year ending 31 March 2021 can be found in the response to PQ73729 at the following link: https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2021-11-12/73729

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