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Written question asked by Lord Burnett (Liberal Democrat) on Thursday, 6 April 2017, in the House of Lords. It was due for an answer on Monday, 24 April 2017. It was answered by Earl Howe (Conservative) on Friday, 21 April 2017 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

Marines: Finance

Question

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what were the annual budgets of the Royal Marines for each financial year from 2014–15 to 2019–20; whether those budgets include a proportion of the UK Special Forces budget; and if so whether those payments are spent exclusively on Special Forces personnel, training and operations.

Answer

The Armed Services operate as fully integrated joint organisations in which elements from the Royal Navy, the Army, the Royal Air Force, and the Royal Marines all work closely together and share buildings, facilities, and sometimes equipment. A joined-up approach is vital to delivering the capability enhancements outlined in the 2015 Strategic Defence and Security Review. However, the consequent integrated budgetary structure means that it is not possible to state accurately what the Spending Review settlement means for individual services in a particular financial year (FY).

As is standard practice, we do not comment on the operations of the Special Forces.

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) is split into six Top Level Budget areas including Navy Command, Army Command and Air Command. The following information shows the net Departmental Expenditure Limit (DEL) outturn (resource and capital) for the Royal Navy, the Army and the Royal Air Force Top Level Budget areas in FYs 2014-15 and 2015-16.

Net DEL outturn by Top Level Budget (reviewed as forecast against budget by the Defence Board during the year)

Restated 2014-15* (£000)

2015-16 (£000)

Royal Navy

2,361,787

2,506,976

Army

6,402,314

6,553,188

Royal Air Force

2,416,171

2,509,289

*During the last two years a new organisation, Information Systems and Services, has been formed (by combining internal MOD branches) to deliver information capabilities to the Department. The new organisation is part of Joint Force Command and comparator year figures have been restated to reflect the reorganisation which mainly impacted Defence Equipment and Support and Joint Forces Command.

Annual budgets for each Top Level Budget area are determined depending on capability requirements and priorities. Forecasts of near cash expenditure against budgets are regularly reviewed and revised by the Defence Board in-year, when considering performance and resource allocation. It is not possible to accurately state the annual performance of individual Top Level Budget areas, or what their control totals will be in future years.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
HL6703
Session
2016-17
Grouped for answer
Yes
Subjects
Finance Marines Special forces
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk