Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much his Department underspent on (a) salaries, (b) accommodation and (c) equipment in 2019 through not achieving its target of a British Army standing strength of 82,000.
The Defence Secretary has made recruitment and retention in the British Army the Chief of the General Staff's overriding objective.
The Department's financial planning process allows for regular re-prioritisation of funds. Accommodation and equipment costs are relatively fixed in the short term and are unlikely to vary with fluctuations in strength.