Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to Defence’s response to a more contested and volatile world, published on 18 July 2023, CP 901, how much more than £6.6bn his Department will be investing in R and D.

The Department was set a minimum spend for Research and Development (R&D) at Spending Review (SR) 20, totalling £6.6 billion over the four years from financial year (FY) 2021-22. To date, the Department has spent £3.9 billion on R&D (£1.8 billion in FY 2021-22 and £2.1 billion in FY 2022-23. Forecasts for R&D spend meeting the internationally-recognised definition for R&D for the remaining two years are subject to change. However, levels of investment are not expected to reduce from the amounts seen in the first half of this spending review period, meaning the Department will comfortably exceed this SR20 target.