Defence spending
The future of the UK’s defence spending continues to generate news coverage today. The Financial Times has splashed on a story, followed by The Daily Mail, claiming that Downing St has asked Oliver Letwin, head of policy at No 10, to investigate if Britain’s intelligence agency budgets can be counted as NATO spending, amid anxiety in Washington that conventional defence spending will drop below 2% of GDP. The piece also alleges that MoD officials have already managed to boost the amount included in NATO calculations this year, adding war pensions, a total of just over £800m annually, to its NATO submission for 2015-16.
As we reported yesterday, the Government has said the UK continues to deliver the second largest defence budget in NATO and the largest in the EU and is committed to spending 2% of GDP on defence with decisions on spending after the financial year 2015/16 to be determined in the next spending review.
Over the next decade, the Government has committed to spending £163 billion on equipment and equipment support to keep Britain safe. That includes new strike fighters; more surveillance aircraft; hunter killer submarines; two aircraft carriers; and the most advanced armoured vehicles.
The Wall St Journal covers an interview with UK Defence Secretary Michael Fallon in which he says that Britain’s ability to work with the U.S. on foreign missions is unhindered, in a rebuttal to US concerns that the U.K.’s efforts to trim its deficit could hinder its military capability. Ahead of his first meeting with US Defense Secretary Ash Carter, Mr. Fallon said the British army would still be able to contribute significant forces to military missions after it reaches its target to reduce the number of regular personnel by about one-fifth by 2020. Mr. Fallon added that Britain agreed with the U.S. that European allies needed to increase their military spending. “We’re alongside the United States in wanting other European allies to do more,” Mr. Fallon said.
Travel costs
The Sun ran a small story following the NAO’s report into government travel expenditure, referencing the MOD as spending £69m on plane tickets last year.
The MOD outlined its policy on travel expenditure, explaining that:
First class air travel is prohibited except for exceptional circumstances and the criteria for using business class tickets have been tightened to ensure we get the best value for money for the taxpayer. Travel is an essential part of MOD business, either to MOD sites across the UK and overseas or to hold meetings with Government and military officials.
Image of the day
![The Royal Navy formally welcomed a new Second Sea Lord yesterday when Vice Admiral Jonathan Woodcock took over the role in a ceremony in HMS Victory in Portsmouth, which also marks his appointment as Admiral-in-Charge HMS Victory. Admiral Woodcock, 52, is the first Marine Engineer to be appointed as Second Sea Lord and will bring both engineering and personnel experience to the role. [Picture: Crown Copyright]](https://modmedia.blog.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/142/2015/03/POD11March.jpg)