Armed Forces: Expenditure

(asked on 29th November 2024) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will make an estimate of the proportionate change in (a) spending on service personnel in (i) real and (ii) cash terms and (b) the number of frontline service personnel in each financial year between 2015-16 and 2024-25.


Answered by
Al Carns Portrait
Al Carns
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for Veterans)
This question was answered on 4th December 2024

The information you have requested is set out in the table below. The figures for financial year 2024-25 will be available once the accounts have been closed and audited. All personnel numbers are as at 1 April of the relevant financial year.

Financial Year

2015-16

2016-17

2017-18

2018-19

2019-20

2020-21

2021-22

2022-23

2023-24

Spend on Service Personnel in Cash Terms (£million)

9,319

9,623

9,684

9,785

10,691

11,269

11,184

11,449

11,954

Spend on Service Personnel in Real Terms (£million at Constant 2023-24 prices)

12,050

12,169

12,056

11,931

12,734

12,738

12,716

12,151

11,954

Total UK Regular Forces

153,724

150,996

149,366

146,556

144,428

145,317

149,280

147,978

142,556

of which Royal Navy and Royal Marines

32,739

32,502

32,544

32,483

32,537

32,755

33,848

33,929

32,840

of which Army

87,058

85,038

83,561

81,116

79,029

79,624

82,231

80,730

77,536

of which Royal Air Force

33,927

33,456

33,261

32,957

32,862

32,938

33,201

33,319

32,180

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