Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much and what proportion of his Department's budget for research and development has not been allocated.

All R&D funding is allocated to Top Level Budgets (TLBs) as part of the annual budget cycle. At the start of this financial year, 25% of R&D spending is currently committed, with the remainder uncommitted to enable flexibility and for budget holders to invest strategically in key programmes. This is consistent with the approach taken over previous three years, where all R&D funding has been committed by the end of each financial year.