Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the correction notices published on 19 April 2024 in relation to his Department's annual reports from 2018-19 to 2022-23, what accounts for the inaccurate estimates of the armed forces' inventories of supplies and spares published in the original copies of those reports; and whether the equivalent estimates in his Department's annual reports for years prior to 2018-19 remain accurate.

This was an unfortunate administrative error, however the note to the accounts on volumes of inventory is essentially narrative and is not audited. The financial values of the stock that we hold are audited and the Department is confident in their accuracy in each set of accounts. Reporting responsibility for the quantities of inventory within the Department and included within the notes to the accounts changed in financial year 2017-18, therefore data prior to this time is unavailable. We have no reason to believe that the data was inaccurate prior to this point but are unable to confirm this.