Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 24
24
Acknowledged
Department is still determining investment priorities for increased defence spending until late 2025.
Conclusion
In March 2025, the government announced that it will increase defence spending to 2.5% of gross domestic product from April 2027.48 However, the Department told us it is only midway through the process of deciding how to invest the additional funding in priorities that ensure the armed forces deliver what the government has asked of them.49 The Department said that once the SDR was published it would have to work through the detailed capability choices using an internal balanced investment process, and then set out the results of that for parliamentary scrutiny. It does not expect to have completed this process until the latter part of 2025.50 The absence of full Equipment Plan since 2022
Government Response Summary
The government acknowledged the increase in defence spending to 2.5% of GDP from April 2027.
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
Introduction from the Committee Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has contributed to making the world more unstable. In response, the UK Government has confirmed in its Spending Review on 11 June that it will increase defence spending to 2.5% of gross domestic product from April 2027 (the 2.6% figure referred to in the announcement includes the 0.1% intelligence and security services contribution), with an ambition to increase it to 3% in the next Parliament.