Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 13 January 2023 to Question 122497 on Armed Forces: annual leave, what the estimated cost to the public purse of the Annual Leave Payment Scheme is.

In accordance with international accounting standards, the Department holds £70 million of accruals for untaken leave carried forward by civil servants in prior years. Funding for the Annual Leave Payment Scheme will be drawn from this figure, the amount of which will be dependent on overall uptake which we are currently measuring.