Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 18 May 2021 to Question 327 on Armed Forces: Overseas Aid, what estimate has made of the total cost of the delivery of aid and relief efforts by the UK's armed forces in (a) 2019-20 and (b) 2020-21.

Overseas aid provided through the Official Development Assistance (ODA) mechanism is reported in accordance with the calendar year rather than financial year, therefore, Defence had reported a spend of £6.08 million in 2019 and a provisional figure of £5.18 million has been reported in 2020. The expenditure for 2021 is still to be determined and will be published in 2022. The cost of Defence providing overseas relief in 2019-20 totalled £730,000 and £548,000 in 2020-21, however these figures do not include Defence's support to the COVID19 crisis overseas (Operation BROADSHARE), which to date is estimated to have cost £370,000. There may be other instances between 2019-2021 where Defence provided aid/relief, however these were not recorded centrally.