Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the Government's policy is on the provision of incremental annual pay rises for personnel of the armed forces; and if he will make a statement.

As part of its New Employment Model programme, Defence is developing a new pay model which will be simpler, more transparent and provide Service personnel with greater pay predictability, removing some of the unpopular and divisive features of the current pay model. However, the details of this new pay model, including incremental progression arrangements, cannot be finalised until the outcome of the Spending Review is known.