Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether he has had discussions with Cabinet colleagues on the potential merits of increasing armed forces pay in line with inflation; and whether he has made a comparative assessment of the wages of armed forces staff and the wages of public service who have taken part in strikes in 2022-2023 that have been covered by the armed forces.

The annual remit for the Armed Forces’ Pay Review Body (AFPRB) and Defence’s annual affordability for the AFPRB’s annual pay award are both agreed with Ministerial colleagues.

Last year, the independent AFPRB recommended a 3.75% uplift in pay and other targeted measures, including a 1% cap on accommodation charges. At the same time, the independent Senior Salaries Review Body (SSRB) recommended a 3.5% award to the most senior officers at two-Star rank and above. All these recommendations were accepted in full. Evidence for this year has been provided to both the AFPRB and SSRB and we are awaiting their 2023 reports.

In determining their recommendations, the pay review bodies operate within their respective remits. For the AFPRB, this explicitly includes comparative assessments with other workforces as part of their consideration of the need for the pay of the Armed Forces to be broadly comparable with pay levels in civilian life.