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Written question asked by Denis MacShane (Independent (affiliation)) on Friday, 29 October 2010, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 2 November 2010. It was answered by Liam Fox (Conservative) on Monday, 8 November 2010 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

Public Expenditure

Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what proportion of gross domestic product (a) was allocated to his Department in funding in each year since 2000 and (b) he expects to be so allocated in each year to 2015.
Answer

Data on UK Defence spending as a proportion of GDP are collected and published by NATO in order to allow comparisons between NATO countries.Data from 2000 are shown in the following table.

UK Defence spend proportion of GDP
Percentage
2000 2.5
2001 2.5
2002 2.4
2003 2.4
2004 2.2
2005 2.5
2006 2.4
2007 2.5
2008 2.6
2009 2.7

The figures that the Ministry of Defence (MOD) provide to NATO are for Defence expenditure, as detailed in their instructions. This definition includes the MOD's core budget along with the cost of operations, pensions and Armed Forces Compensation Scheme payments made to ex-military personnel, and non-budget costs.The specific percentage of GDP in future years will be dependent on the actual spend in those categories that are in addition to the Defence budget. The MOD has forecast, however, that spending on Defence as a percentage of GDP will continue to meet the NATO target of 2% over the spending review period.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
21610; 518 c22-3W
Session
2010-12
Subjects
Public expenditure Ministry of Defence
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk