Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will place in the Library copies of his Department's returns to the annual NATO defence expenditure survey for each of the last 15 years.

The UK returns to the annual NATO defence expenditure survey are based primarily on the MOD's Annual Report and Accounts. In order to meet the NATO definition of Defence Expenditure they also include the payments made via the Armed Forces Pension Scheme, all of which are already in the public domain.

NATO also publishes the defence expenditure of NATO countries regularly on its website;

http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/topics_49198.htm

The published NATO figures represent payments actually made or to be made during the course of the financial year.