Question to the Ministry of Defence:
What assessment he has made of the impact on armed forces personnel and their families of the decrease in average annual real-term growth from 2021 to 2025 in day-to-day spending of his Department, as a result of the Autumn Budget and Spending Review 2021.
Defence’s budget is growing year on year over the spending review period. We received a record settlement for Defence in 2020 of £16.5 billion. From 2019-20, the total Defence budget’s annual growth is 1.5% in real terms, with CDEL increasing from £10.3 billion in 2019-20 to £16.2 billion in 2024-25, and RDEL increasing from £30.6 billion to £32.4 billion.
This year Defence also received over £2 billion additional funding for running costs to counteract costs arising from the Health and Social Care Levy and expected increases in inflation in the wider economy.