Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Written Statement by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence of 9 December 2015, HCWS372, on War Pension Scheme - Uprating 2016, if he will make an estimate of the cost of uprating war pensions in line with average earnings in 2016.

The Department uprates War Pensions annually in line with the Consumer Prices Index (CPI), ensuring a consistent approach to social security disability benefits administered by the Department for Work and Pensions. This is in keeping with other public service schemes and reflects the measure of inflation used by the Bank of England. Therefore the Ministry of Defence has no plans to estimate the cost of uprating compensation payments made under the War Pension Scheme in line with average earnings.