Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment his Department has made of the effect on the local economy in Moray constituency of (a) spending and (b) investment by (i) his Department and (ii) the armed forces since 2015.

The Ministry of Defence's (MOD) over-riding priority is to provide national security for the UK as a whole and its extensive regional footprint exists to provide UK national security.

Spending or investment decisions are appraised on the basis of costs and benefits to UK society overall irrespective of the location of the expenditure, as required by HM Treasury Green Book.

The department does not routinely undertake assessments of the effect of national spending or investment decisions on local economies.

MOD Regional Expenditure with UK Industry and Commerce and Supported Employment is published at the Government Office Regional level as a National Statistic at the following link:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/774871/Finance_and_economics_annual_statistical_bulletin_201718.pdf