Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what estimate his Department has made of the cost to the public purse of procurement programmes that were cancelled from (a) May 1997 to May 2010, (b) May 2010 to May 2015, (c) May 2015 to July 2024 and (d) July 2024 to present.

As would be expected of any responsible organisation, the Ministry of Defence regularly reviews its programmes and assets to determine how best to meet future threats including taking appropriate action to address changes.

Prior to 1999-2000, the Department's spend on cancelled programmes over £100,000 were published in their Appropriation Accounts, before transitioning to Resource Accounts until 2023-24, where the current Annual Report and Accounts process began. These accounts are available until 2024-25.

The threshold was changed to £250,000 in 2012-13 and then to £300,000 in 2015-16, which remains the current threshold, to reflect inflation.