Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what estimate he has made of the cost to the armed forces of increasing the employer contribution to the armed forces pension schemes in each of the next three fiscal years; and whether his Department has plans to fund the cost of the increased contribution in each of those years.

The Ministry of Defence is required to undertake a valuation of the Armed Forces Pension Scheme every four years. Early indications are that the amount the Department pays towards the scheme will need to increase. This is largely because of proposed changes to the discount rate used to assess the current cost of future payments from the schemes to reflect the Office for Budget Responsibility's long-term growth forecasts. The outcome of the valuation will be published by the end of this financial year.

Some increase in costs was anticipated at Budget 2016. HM Treasury will be supporting Departments with any unforeseen costs for financial year 2019-20. Funding additional costs beyond this point will be considered in the Spending Review.