Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the impact of zero nominal growth in NATO's civil budget on the additional tasks given to NATO at the Wales Summit.

The British Government places the highest priority on the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) delivering the commitments made at the Wales Summit, which will strengthen the Alliance to ensure it is able to respond to the full range of new and emerging threats. Good progress has been made in 2015 towards delivering the Wales package with Zero Nominal Growth civil budgets in place. For example NATO has reprioritised resources towards Cyber Defence, enabling its funding to rise by 116 per cent within existing resources. The NATO Civil Budget for 2016 remains under discussion, but we are pressing NATO to continue to prioritise resources as necessary towards delivering the Wales agenda. We support the Secretary General’s drive for adaptation of the organisation, which we hope will promote greater prioritisation and smarter use of resources, allowing NATO to respond quickly to evolving security challenges.